Willing to Support Parole, Schwarzenegger Is to Review His First Death-Penalty Case

LOS ANGELES -- The drug deal led to gunfire and left a man dead at Jeri Becker's feet. Convicted of murder, she has spent 23 years inside a California prison, serving a life sentence with only faint hope of ever getting out.

Prison officials had recommended Becker for parole in recent years, citing her model conduct as an inmate. But the governor at the time, Gray Davis (D), stepped in and overturned that decision -- just as he did for almost all of the nearly 300 parole cases involving murderers that came across his desk.

Then Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) took office.

Now, Becker, 52, can count the days to her release. In just two months as governor, Schwarzenegger has supported decisions by the state's Board of Prison Terms to set free eight apparently rehabilitated murderers who already have served lengthy sentences.

That tally matches the number that Davis allowed to be paroled in the five years he spent as governor before being recalled from office last fall. It is also one among several emerging signs that for all the tough Terminator talk the former movie star is bringing to the politics of the Golden State, Schwarzenegger may not be a hard-liner on crime and punishment -- even if that politically risky stance angers his conservative supporters.

"Davis felt the need to always prove that no one was to the right of him on criminal justice, but Schwarzenegger is a Republican with a tough-guy image. He doesn't have to worry about that nearly as much," said Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor at the University of Southern California. "It's still early in his administration, but even the fact that he is willing to approve parole for these people is in itself a huge change."

All eyes are on Schwarzenegger's plans to solve California's massive fiscal crisis, but the choices he makes on law-and-order issues could also prove to be significant and politically defining. Schwarzenegger said little during the campaign about criminal justice and since his election has not publicly emphasized it either. His parole decisions have been made with little fanfare.

"He treats each of these cases on an individual basis," said Vincent Sollitto, a spokesman for the governor. "First and foremost in his mind will always be public safety."

Next month, he is likely to face his first decision on the death penalty, a practice that he has said he generally supports. The next convict in line to be put to death is seeking clemency and has the support of groups that oppose capital punishment. They are planning statewide demonstrations to urge Schwarzenegger to spare his life.

And that is only the beginning of the pressures the new governor has begun to face on the issue of crime and punishment.

California runs the nation's largest penal system, housing more than 160,000 convicts. It also has some of the country's toughest and most controversial sentencing laws, including a "three strikes" measure that can put a third-time felony offender in jail for life even for a nonviolent crime such as theft. And by many accounts, the state agency that oversees prisons is mired with problems.

A federal report issued this month called it beset with management corruption and rogue prison guards. Last fall, state investigators also denounced California's parole policies as a "billion-dollar failure" because most released inmates end up back behind bars. At a hearing convened last week to examine the troubles plaguing prisons, state senators called California's penal system a "tarnished institution" in dire need of reform.

Schwarzenegger is just beginning to address those issues and is contemplating dramatic shifts in policy, although he has shown no sign of retreating from the three-strikes law. His administration, facing a $14 billion budget shortfall and desperate to find savings, may restructure parole policies in ways that would return fewer parolees to prison for minor violations of the terms of their release. It also is considering easing sentencing laws for some nonviolent offenders. Both of those moves could save California several hundred million dollars a year.

"It's clear that the state's parole system is not serving either the state or parolees well," Sollitto said.

The most provocative step Schwarzenegger has taken on that subject has been to grant murderers parole. California is one of only a few states that give its governor the power to review and change decisions parole officials make on inmates serving time for murder.

So far, Schwarzenegger has reviewed 23 such cases. He has supported the release of eight murderers and overturned recommendations to free 15 others.

By contrast, Davis reviewed 294 cases in which parole officials recommended releasing a murderer and let only eight of them go free. "If you take someone's life," Davis said at one point while in office, "forget it."

Aides to Schwarzenegger say that he wants to show more flexibility on the issue without jeopardizing public safety. But some conservative lawmakers and groups that represent victims of crime say they fear he is acting recklessly.

"We're very concerned about what he's doing," said Harriet Salarno, the president of an organization called Crime Victims United of California. "We're watching it very closely and hope it doesn't continue."

The parole recommendations that Schwarzenegger has supported are diverse. He has agreed to set free a 63-year-old man who shot and killed his estranged wife's boyfriend in Sacramento in 1985, and a 51-year-old Los Angeles woman convicted of killing her abusive husband's mistress in 1987. Davis twice denied her parole.

Schwarzenegger also has backed the release of a 43-year-old Mexican woman convicted in the 1981 murder of a man who had held her in servitude as a housekeeper and raped her. She hid the weapon that a neighbor of the man used to kill him.

Then there is the case of Becker. She was convicted in the 1980 slaying of a man taking part in a drug deal with her and a companion. During an argument, the companion fatally shot the man as Becker watched. Both of them were convicted.

But parole officials say that she has turned her life around in prison, counseling inmates, leading a choir and never posing discipline problems.

"She did quite a bit of work helping other inmates improve their lives," said Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the Board of Prison Terms. "We were confident that she does not pose any threat to society."

The parole recommendations that Schwarzenegger has overturned include one involving a man who is serving a life sentence for killing a motorist two decades ago while driving drunk, and another case involving a woman who was convicted 20 years ago for killing her husband during an argument. Aides to the governor say he was not convinced in either case that the inmates are fully rehabilitated.

Schwarzenegger also is soon to confront his first death-penalty case. An execution date for Kevin Cooper, convicted of killing four people with a hatchet in San Bernardino County in 1983, has been set for next month. He would be the 11th inmate in California put to death since the state resumed executions in 1978.

But Cooper has petitioned for clemency from the governor, and groups that oppose capital punishment are pleading with Schwarzenegger, who has not commented on the case, to approve the request.

Cameron Sturdevant, an organizer for a group called the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said he wants Schwarzenegger to follow the example of former Illinois governor George Ryan, a Republican who last year emptied that state's death row and granted clemency to 167 convicts who had been awaiting execution.

"We have a glimmer of hope," Sturdevant said, "because Schwarzenegger is certainly taking a different approach to the difficult issue of parole."

Washington Post - Monday, January 26, 2004; Page A02