In re Riley

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On January 26, 1976, petitioner was convicted of the June 21, 1975 first degree murders of his then-girlfriend’s parents. He was originally sentenced to death, but while his case was on appeal, the California Supreme Court declared the statutory death penalty scheme unconstitutional (Rockwell v. Superior Court (1976) 18 Cal.3d 420) and the Court of Appeal modified petitioner’s sentence to life imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently. His minimum eligible parole was set at seven years, June 27, 1982. At a hearing on November 28, 2011, the Board found him unsuitable for parole. Petitioner challenged the parole denial with a petition for writ of habeas corpus filed in the Marin County Superior Court on July 31, 2012. The petition was denied on September 24, 2012.

1 The present petition was filed in this court on December 18, 2012. We issued an order to show cause on May 7, 2013, and the parties subsequently filed their return and traverse.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

At the time of the November 2011 parole hearing at issue here, petitioner was 56 years old. He committed his crimes when he was about a month past his 20th birthday and his then-girlfriend was 16…