Whenever notorious murderer Charles Manson or one of his convicted followers were to be released on parole for the past 40 years, a Los Angeles County district attorney joined the relatives of the victims in a California state prison to argue against the release.
But when Kay Martley joined a California Board of Parole Hearings video conference earlier this month to consider parole for convicted Manson “family killer Bruce Davis,” she was stunned to learn that she would only defend the case on behalf of her murdered man. family member.
“I had no one to speak to for me,” said Martley, 81, whose cousin Gary Hinman was tortured and murdered by Manson followers on July 27, 1969. “I felt like no one cares about the victim’s families anymore.
The absence of a prosecutor was not a mistake. It was the result of a policy change ordered by newly elected Los Angeles district attorney George Gascón, who campaigned for pledges to reduce the number of people in prison.
The new mandate ends Los Angeles County prosecutors opposing parole for prisoners sentenced to life who have already served their mandatory minimum period of incarceration.
Gascón’s directive is part of a sudden shift in the way his prosecutor’s office, the largest in the country, considers victims’ rights before, during and after criminal cases.
The move is unlikely to have a direct effect on Davis’s fate, experts say. Although the state administration has recommended parole – the sixth time it has done so – California Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to deny the convicted killer’s parole.
But the dynamic of a victim’s family member who feels abandoned by prosecutors represents an unintended – but thorny – consequence of some progressive prosecutors’ newfound drive to stop trying to get parole decisions. to influence.
Gascón is one of the few prosecutors in places like New Orleans and Brooklyn, New York, to reconsider their position on automatically opposing parole applications. The movement has gained momentum in the wake of the national bill on racial inequality in the criminal justice system spurred by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last May.
The Davis case illustrates how family members of victims may feel like they are left out in the cold.
My mouth falls open. I’m furious, ”said Debra Tate, whose actress sister Sharon Tate was murdered by Manson followers.
Tate joined the parole committee hearing for Davis earlier this month, saying she too was shocked by the absence of a prosecutor.
“At the most gruesome moment, when you have to relive the gruesome details of the loss of your loved ones, now you also have to do the work and act as the prosecutor would,” she said.
Under the new policy, Los Angeles County prosecutors will no longer attend parole hearings and will support the granting of parole to a person who has served all of their mandatory minimum sentences, Gascón said in a memo to his staffers Dec. 7. day he was sworn in at the office.
Gascón said that if state prison officials rule that a person represents a “high” risk of recidivism, a prosecutor could “take a neutral stance in their letter on the granting of parole.”
The underlying argument is the idea that state officials, not prosecutors, are best equipped to make a judgment on whether or not to release prisoners.
“The role of the prosecutor ends with the conviction,” said Alex Bastian, special counsel to Gascón. “There has been a struggle between public safety and justice. The prosecutor believes you can do both. ”
Asked to respond to specific questions about the Davis case, Bastian said the office is focused on providing “trauma-informed services” when a “heartbreaking crime” occurs.
In any case where a person has spent nearly half a century in prison, parole has likely revised generations of behavioral health assessments and found that a nearly 80-year-old older man is not the same person he was when he was. 30 years old, ”he added. “The people’s interest in continued detention, at extraordinary expense to the taxpayer, has likely informed their decision to release.”
Bastian noted that the office will continue to provide a victims’ attorney to support family members. He acknowledged that no attorney for the victims attended the virtual hearing, but said it was because family members were against it. Martley disputed that characterization, saying she had never been told about the possibility of anyone taking part in the hearing.
Manson and his followers committed a gruesome series of murders in Los Angeles in 1969.
Davis, now 78 years old, was sentenced to life in 1972 for the murders of Hinman and Donald “Shorty” Shea.
Hinman, an aspiring musician, was tortured and murdered after Manson mistakenly believed he had been given an inheritance. According to court testimony, Davis held Hinman at gunpoint while Manson sliced his face and cut his ear with a sword.
Authorities who came to the house on July 31, 1969, discovered Hinman’s body and a Black Panther symbol and a ‘political pig’ written on the walls of the house in what was later identified as Hinman’s blood.
Shea, who worked on the ranch where Manson and some of his followers had lived, was stabbed and clubbed to death. He was then dismembered and his remains were not discovered until 1977.
Davis was not involved in the more notorious murders of Tate and six others by Manson and his followers.
Steve Grogan, who was convicted of Shea’s murder, was the only Manson follower to be paroled from prison in 1985. Manson, who died in 2017, was repeatedly paroled.
Davis, who has had a total of 33 parole hearings, has been found fit for parole six times as of 2010. In both cases, the incumbent governor blocked his release from prison.
The final parole recommendation for his release, referred to in official documents as “eligibility for parole”, will be finalized in the coming months. Correction officers conduct a legal review, after which Newsom has one month to dismiss the decision, take no action, or make changes to the decision by adding a conditional condition or changing the date of release.
Newsom’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Davis’ attorney, Michael Beckman, said his client was the “most rehabilitated” of the approximately 2,000 inmates serving life sentences he has represented.
“He was given seven years to life, and if he were someone else instead of a Manson relative, he would have been released 30 years ago,” Beckman said. “There is no question that there is a visceral response [to the Manson murders]. But the law says you can only hold someone responsible for their participation in the crime. He cannot be held responsible for what Charles Manson did. Bruce didn’t kill anyone. He took part in two murders. And he has taken responsibility for it. “
Retired Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay said he believes that in his attempt to do the right thing, Gascón went too far by issuing a general policy.
He said prosecutors play an important role in the trial by ensuring that parole committees are presented with the facts of the underlying conviction, along with the impact of the crimes on the victims’ families.
“In fact, he took the people’s lawyer out of the equation and left it to the defense,” Kay said.
Kay said at the first hearing for Manson family member Patricia Krenwinkel that the board had received a two-page probation report that, he said, downplayed her role in the brutal murder of Tate, her unborn baby and four other victims: Wojciech Frykowski, Jay Sebring, Steven Parent and Abigail Folger.
Four of the victims had been stabbed a total of 102 times and the fifth had been shot. Kay recited the gruesome details of the murders.
“I think we owe it to society not to let go of a member of the Manson family like Patricia Krenwinkel, who participated in seven of the most brutal, brutal murders in the history of American crime,” said Kay against the board. to a transcription. “I think it would be of great deterrent value to show the public that not everyone who commits murder can automatically be paroled.”
It was the first version of an argument he would give some 60 times, from 1978 to 2005, when he retired and a new generation of prosecutors began appearing at parole hearings.
Martley, the cousin of victim Gary Hinman, has been attending parole board hearings since 2012. She said she was in a “state of shock” when she realized that no member of the district attorney’s office would participate in the January 22 hearing. .
“I don’t think it’s fair that the prisoner is legally represented in court and I don’t,” she said.
“It was a terrible crime,” she added. “God willing, I’ll be healthy to keep fighting these people.”