Whenever the infamous killer Charles Manson or one of his convicted followers had come for parole for the past forty years, a Los Angeles County prosecutor joined victims’ relatives in a California jail to argue against the release.
But when Kay Martley joined a board conference of the Board of Parole Hearings in California to release convicted Manson family killer Bruce Davis earlier this month, she was surprised to learn that she would speak the case on behalf of her murdered family member alone.
“I had no one to talk to me,” said Martley, 81, whose cousin Gary Hinman was tortured and killed by Manson followers on July 27, 1969. ‘I felt that no one cared about the victim’s families anymore. . ”
The absence of a prosecutor was no oversight. This was the result of a policy shift ordered by the newly elected district attorney in Los Angeles, George Gascón, who campaigned for promises to reduce the number of people in prison.
The new mandate stops Los Angeles County prosecutors from releasing prisoners who have been sentenced to life in prison and who have already served their mandatory minimum period of incarceration.
Gascón’s assignment is part of a sudden shift in how its district attorney’s office, the largest in the country, considers the rights of victims before, during and after criminal trials.
The move is unlikely to have a direct impact on Davis’ fate, experts say. Although the state council has recommended parole – the sixth time this has been done, the California government, Gavin Newsom, is expected to deny the earlier release of the convicted killer.
But the dynamics of a relative of a victim who feels abandoned by prosecutors is an unintended – but thorny – consequence of the new pressure from some attorneys with a thriving district to stop trying to influence parole decisions.
Gascón is among a handful of district attorneys in places like New Orleans and Brooklyn, New York, to reconsider their position on the auto-opposing parole requests. The movement gained momentum in the wake of the national calculation on racial inequality in the criminal justice system, spurred on by the death of George Floyd at the Minneapolis Police Department in May last year.
The Davis case illustrates how relatives of victims may feel left out in the cold.
“My jaw drops. I’m furious,” said Debra Tate, whose actress sister Sharon Tate was killed by Manson followers.
Tate joined the parole board’s trial for Davis earlier this month and said she was also shocked by the absence of a prosecutor.
“At the most horrific moment, when you have to relive the gruesome details of the loss of your loved ones, you are now also supposed to do the job and act as the DA would do,” she said.
Under the new policy, Los Angeles County prosecutors will no longer attend parole hearings and will provide written support to the person who has already served their mandatory minimum sentence, Gascón said in a memorandum to his staff members on Dec. 7. day he was sworn in at the office.
Gascón said if government officials in the prison determined that a person represented a “high” risk of recurrence, a prosecutor could “take a neutral stance on parole in their letter.”
The idea is that the state parole officers, not prosecutors, are best equipped to make judgments about prisoners or not.
“The prosecutors’ role ends with sentencing,” said Alex Bastian, Gascón’s special adviser. “There was a tug of war between public safety and fairness. The DA believes you can do both.”
Bastian was asked to respond to specific questions about the Davis case and said the office focuses on providing ‘trauma-informed services’ when a ‘heartbreaking crime’ occurs. ‘
‘In any case where an individual has spent almost half a century in prison, the parole board probably checked generations’ evaluations of behavioral health and determined that an almost 80-year-old was not the same person as when he was. 30 years old, ”he added. “The interest of people in continued detention at extraordinary cost to taxpayers has probably signaled their decision to release.”
Bastian noted that the office will continue to provide an advocacy for victims to support family members. He admitted that no supporter of victims attended the virtual trial, but said it was because family members were opposed to it. Martley disputes the characterization, saying she was never told about the possibility of anyone taking part in the trial.
Manson and his followers carried out a series of gruesome murders in Los Angeles in 1969.
Davis, now 78, was sentenced to life in prison in 1972 for the murders of Hinman and Donald “Shorty” Shea.
Hinman, a prospective musician, was tortured and killed after Manson mistakenly believed he had inherited. According to the court testimony, Davis Hinman held on with gun while Manson cut his face and cut his ear with a sword.
Authorities called to the home on July 31, 1969 and discovered Hinman’s body and a Black Panther symbol and ‘political’ piggy bank ‘written on the walls of the house, which were later identified as Hinman’s blood.
Shea, who worked on the farm where Manson and some of his followers lived, was stabbed and beaten to death. He was then disbanded, and his remains were only discovered in 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 the murder of Shea, was the only Manson follower convicted in the murder who was released from prison. Manson, who died in 2017, has been repeatedly released.
Davis, who has had a total of 33 state court hearings, was initially eligible for parole six times in 2010. In any case, the incumbent governor has blocked his release from prison.
The parole board’s latest recommendation for its release, called “parole suitability” in official documents, will be finalized over the next few months. Correctional officials will conduct a legal investigation, then Newsom has one month to reject the decision, take no action or make adjustments by adding a conditional parole condition or changing the date of release.
Newsom’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
According to Davis’ attorney, Michael Beckman, his client was the “most rehabilitated” of any of the approximately 2,000 inmates serving life sentences he represented.
“He was given life for seven years, and if he had been anyone other than a Manson family member, he would have come out thirty years ago,” Beckman said. ‘There is no doubt there is a complicated reaction [to the Manson murders]. But by law, you can only hold someone accountable for their participation in the crime. He cannot be held responsible for what Charles Manson did. Bruce did not kill anyone. He was involved in two murders. And he accepted responsibility for it. ‘
Retired Los Angeles County Deputy Attorney Stephen Kay has said he believes Gascón is trying to go too far by issuing a general policy.
He said prosecutors play an important role in the process by ensuring that parole boards are presented with the facts of the underlying conviction, along with the impact of the crimes on the families of the victims.
“Basically, he took the public prosecutor out of the equation and left it in the hands of the defense,” Kay said.
During the first parole hearing for Manson family contestant Patricia Krenwinkel, Kay said the council had submitted a two-page trial report that underestimated 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 were stabbed a total of 102 times with a knife and the fifth was shot dead. Kay recounted the gruesome details of the killings.
“I think we owe it to society not to release a member of the Manson family, like Patricia Krenwinkel, who was involved in seven of the most brutal, brutal murders in the history of American crime. , “Kay said according to the council. to a transcript. “I think it would be a great deterrent to show the public that not everyone who commits murder can automatically get out on parole.”
It was the first draft of an argument he would deliver 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 attended hearings at the parole board since 2012. She said she was in a “state of shock” when she realized that no member of the district attorney was going to participate in the January 22 trial. .
“I do not think it is fair that the prisoner has legal representation at the trial, and I do not,” she said.
“It was a terrible crime,” she added. “If I want to, I’ll be healthy to keep fighting these people.”