San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

CDCR issues new regulations for non-violent three-strikes offenders

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California set a nationwide trend in sentencing reform when, in 2012, voters passed an initiative that reduced the sentences for non-violent three strikers. The result: thousands of prisoners serving life sentences got out of prison.
Other initiatives in 2014 and 2016 chipped away at the Three Strikes Laws. Thousands more prisoners earned release.
The latest development comes from an appeals court case, re Edwards.
Edwards holds that California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) regulations preventing nonviolent three-strikes prisoners from the benefits of the 2016 initiative, Proposition 57—particularly the opportunity for early parole—violates the text and intent of the proposition.
Edwards orders CDCR to issue new regulations offering early parole to three-strikes prisoners who were convicted of nonviolent crimes. The deadline is January 5, 2019.
“Some things still have to be figured out,” said Michael Romano, the director of the Stanford Law School Three Strikes Project. According to Romano, about 4,000 inmates qualify for early parole consideration under the Edwards ruling.
“This is a big deal because the governor is not appealing the decision,” Romano said.
“It doesn’t help everyone, but it’s moving in the right direction. We will win this thing eventually.”
Romano tells the incarcerated population to continue programming and keep themselves ready for release.
“I really do want to emphasize how important programming is,” Romano said, “For anyone going before the board, the most important thing you can do is program relentlessly and stay out of trouble.”

SB 1437 eliminates felony-murder rule

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Due to a change in the felony-murder rule, starting Jan. 1, codefendants will no longer automatically be considered guilty of murder for participating in crimes such as armed robbery. The law is retroactive.
On Sept. 30, with a stroke of his pen, Gov. Jerry Brown made Senate Bill 1437 the law. The bill presented by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) states that prosecutors can no longer hold accomplices, who had no intent to kill anyone during the commission of certain specified crimes, accountable for a murder committed by a codefendant.

California’s old felony-murder rule held that when a defendant or a co-defendant commits certain felonies and someone is killed, both defendants are guilty of first-degree murder.
“California’s murder statute irrationally treated people who did not commit murder the same as those who did,” Skinner said after Governor Brown signed the bill into law, according to a Rolling Stone article.“SB 1437 makes clear there is a distinction, reserving the harshest punishment to those who directly participate in the death.”

Under the new law, an accomplice who didn’t actually do the killing can still be held liable if they participated in the underlying crime with an intent to kill and “aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, solicited, requested or assisted” the actual killer in carrying out the murder.
Also, if the accomplice was a major participant in the underlying felony and “acted with reckless indifference to human life” or the victim was someone the culprits “should have reasonably known was a peace officer acting in the line of duty,” they would still be guilty of felony-murder.

San Quentin resident Richard Zorns was convicted of first-degree felony murder 29 years ago for acting as the getaway driver in an armed robbery. Zorns said he participated in the robbery in a misguided attempt to solve several family problems.

“The family crisis in my life had me overwhelmed and impatient, and I thought I could fix it with money,” Zorns said.
Joining in a robbery made things worse for Zorns. According to his Lifer Prisoner Evaluation Report, two codefendants robbed a swap meet while Zorns waited outside in a white Thunderbird. While trying to flee, security guards apprehended one of them and the other co-defendant shot at a guard three times, killing him. The two co-defendants escaped the scene in the car driven by Zorns. For the conviction of murder, all the prosecution had to prove was that Zorns participated in the robbery.

Under the new felony-murder rule, the prosecution would have to prove that Zorns drove his co-defendants away from the scene knowing they just killed a security guard outside of his vision.

“No matter what, my action contributed to somebody being murdered, and I’ll always have remorse about that,” Zorns said. “My mom knows that my intentions were never to hurt anybody.”

An estimated 400 to 800 people incarcerated in California for felony murder will have a chance to petition the court for resentencing, even if they took plea deals, according to Rolling Stone.
The court must vacate the conviction and re-sentence those imprisoned for felony murder or for “murder under a natural and probable consequences theory” who also qualify for relief under the new law.
“No one deserves to die, so I’m sad someone was murdered, but I’m relieved to have a second chance,” Zorns said.
To benefit from the change in law, a petition has to be filed in the court that sentenced the person.

The purpose behind prison strikes

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The push for better food and higher pay in prisons coupled with ongoing parole denials sparked a nationwide prison protest in August.

Prison reform advocacy groups confirmed that demonstrations were taking place in prisons across the country and beyond—from California and Washington to Nova Scotia in Canada, according to The Guardian.

There were also unconfirmed reports of prison strikes in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

The strike, which was the first nationwide prison demonstration in two years, was triggered by a riot in a South Carolina prison last spring that occurred when seven prisoners were killed, the article reported.

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a group of incarcerated activists, put out a set of 10 demands to “overhaul” the jail systems throughout America.

Top priority on the list: To end forced, or underpaid, labor.

“Slave labor…still exists in the United States in 2018,” wrote inmate Kevin Rashid Johnson to The Guardian. “In fact, slavery never ended in this country.”

Johnson is serving a life sentence in Sussex state prison in Waverly, Va.

Other demands called for a greater investment in rehabilitation and better medical and mental health treatment.

In North Carolina, a manifesto calling for the end of solitary confinement was released in July. It states, “No human shall be sentenced to death by incarceration.”

Organizers were trying to get the public’s attention about the spike of in-custody deaths. In Mississippi alone, The Guardian reported that 10 prisoners died in their cells within a three-week period in August.

No cause of death was reported, the article said.

Also in North Carolina, inmates at another prison held banners that read “Parole,” “Better Food” and “In Solidarity.”

There were reports of inmates who didn’t work, avoided purchasing at prison commissaries, and went on hunger strikes.

But accounts of the events happening on the inside remain contested.

In Florida, unconfirmed reports surfaced alleging that 11 of the state’s 143 prisons were impacted by the protests. That report stood in contrast to what a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Corrections said: “We’ve had no stoppages, protests or lockdowns related to the strike.”

Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, an advocacy group, said that because of “the nature of high-security prisons,” a lot of the activity going on inside has not reached the public yet—and may not ever.

Tennis helps SQ lifer cope with missing his daughter

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Tennis is a complex rehabilitative sport. You have to return the ball that is served. But, there are hundreds of ways to hit the ball, and there are a thousand places it could land. For an incarcerated father, it’s a metaphor for life.

Paris Williams could only live the life he was dealt. As a Creole man and father of a bi-racial daughter, he dealt with racism from her family. As a CDCR prisoner sentenced to 75 years to life, he deals with years of anguish.

Williams was struck out under California’s Three Strike Law for his third burglary case.

Playing for the Inside Tennis Team at San Quentin helps him to stay positive.

“Tennis changed my outlook on life. I learned to humble myself, because on the court there is no racism,” Williams said. “I learned to socialize because as an outlaw, you don’t socialize, you live like a chameleon.”

On Fridays, he cleans the court, because every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. they match racquets against members of the surrounding communities, who enter the prison to partake in the sport and share what they’ve learned as tennis players.

“I come in to help guys,” said team co-coordinator and volunteer Sharon S., who does not come inside from a social justice perspective. She believes there are programs for that, but says she does help people change the way they think.

“When I play with inmates, I give them pointers because some of them don’t play teams as well and working as a team is what tennis is,” she said. “It’s about camaraderie and boosting up your partner.”

First-time volunteer Beth C. said, “Anytime I want to get better at something, it’s easier said than done. I have to reach in for patience, humility and acceptance of myself.”

“Tennis is mental; anytime I’m focused on what other people think of my game, I’m distracted.”

Like Beth C., Williams has had a humbling experience playing tennis. It’s hard for him to focus on rehabilitation when he’s thinking of how his decision to commit crimes caused him to miss the greater half of his daughter’s life.

His daughter holds resentment toward him for going back and forth to prison. They were estranged before he was struck out on his current term.

Three years ago, she explained in a letter that she did not mean to push him away from her, but wished he wouldn’t have given up on her either. It was the last time he heard from her.

“She told me, ‘don’t think I don’t love you.’ She said she loves me and thinks of me all the time, but she’s dealing with life,” Williams said.

He has been at San Quentin for more than three years and started coming out to play tennis two years ago for the rehabilitative aspect. In Williams’ transition from crime rackets to tennis racquets, he learned cross match tennis and became more comfortable with socializing by talking to volunteers who come inside to play.

Fanny Gamble, a member of Harbor Point Tennis Club, said, “All the tools and blessings I got from tennis I apply to life, like taking one point at a time, think ahead, stay positive, strategize, have a plan, and don’t forget to smile, because it’s supposed to be fun.”

Gamble has been player of the year for her age group, and she represented the U.S. at the world cup last April in South Africa.

Williams said that being in prison with a life sentence often puts a frown on things.

He stresses over the pain he caused his daughter and the disappointment as a father who repeatedly came back and forth to prison. The disappointment with himself had been his trigger to give up on the idea of being a socially polite person. On the verge of quitting on April 14, he talked to volunteer Marty Silverman about it, because his desire to quit was triggered by depression.

“Today I’ve concluded walking away is not an option,” Williams said.

http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/

California Strikes Unconstitutional

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California’s Supreme Court ruled a portion of the Three Strikes Law unconstitutional. It ruled that there are limits on awarding multiple strikes arising out of a single criminal act.
The facts of the case are as follows:
Darlene Vargas and Oscar Velasquez committed a home invasion robbery against Lynn Burrows and William Alves. Later that night, Vargas and Velasquez were caught prowling near another home in the same neighborhood. A witness later identified Velasquez and Vargas as the man and woman who were walking near the victims’ home. They were in possession of burglary tools and items taken from the Burrows/Alves home.
Vargas was charged and convicted of burglary, grand theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft.
At sentencing, the court ruled that a 1999 carjacking and robbery counted as two strikes against her, even though they happened during a single criminal act.
The court on July 10 ruled that when the Three Strikes Law passed in 1994, voters understood that a person would have three chances before the harshest penalty could be imposed and that no one can receive two strikes on one act.
The court clarified multiple strikes out of a single prior conviction. In the 1998 case People v. Benson, the court ruled that a person who commits additional violence in the course of a serious felony, e.g., shooting or pistol-whipping a victim during a robbery or assaulting a victim during a burglary, should be given multiple strikes as opposed to an individual who committed the same initial felony but did not commit additional violence.
“But where, as here, an offender committed but a single act, we disagree she poses a greater risk to society merely because the Legislature has chosen to criminalize the act in different ways. The Legislature is free to criminalize an act in multiple ways, but that it has done so does not of itself make an offender more blameworthy, or more dangerous, within the meaning of the Three Strikes law,” the court ruled.
The court found that since Vargas’ priors were multiple criminal convictions stemming from the same set of facts during the commission of a single act, they count as one strike.

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