Davis

I. Background

In 1980, Donald Miller was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. His first two applications for parole, filed in 1996 and 1998, were denied by the California Board of Prison Terms (“Board”). On February 18, 1999, the Board granted Miller’s third application for parole and referred the decision to then- Governor Davis for review. Governor Davis reversed it. Mil- ler applied for parole a fourth time and, on October 2, 2000, the Board again found him suitable for parole and again referred the decision to Governor Davis. Again, he reversed it.

On August 20, 2001, the California Court of Appeal vacated Governor Davis’s reversal of the Board’s grant of parole on the ground that the Governor lacked authority to review the Board’s 1999 and 2000 parole decisions. Specifi- cally, the court held that Article V, § 8 of the California Con- stitution, and § 3041.2 of the California Penal Code, which permit the Governor to review parole decisions of inmates “sentenced to an indeterminate term upon conviction of mur- der,” Cal. Const. art. V, § 8(b) (emphasis added), do not authorize him to review parole decisions of inmates…