In re Lawrence

In 1971, Sandra Davis Lawrence (petitioner) murdered her lover’s wife, Rubye Williams. Petitioner fled the state, remaining a fugitive until 1982, when she voluntarily returned to California and surrendered to the authorities. Petitioner declined a plea offer that would have resulted in a two-year prison sentence. After the jury returned a guilty verdict on a charge of first degree murder, the trial court imposed a sentence of life imprisonment—the statutory penalty for murders committed prior to November 8, 1978—and set a minimum eligible parole date of November 29, 1990.

In August 2005, after numerous hearings before the Board of Parole Hearings (the Board), 1 that entity for the fourth time found petitioner suitable for parole and set a parole date. In finding petitioner suitable for parole, the Board emphasized the presence of multiple statutory factors favoring suitability, including petitioner’s exemplary record of rehabilitation, her acceptance of responsibility for the crime, her realistic parole plans, and her close ties to her family, who would offer her support in reintegrating into the community.

The Governor, however, as he had done previously, found that…

I concur in the majority opinion. I write separately to explain this concurrence in light of my dissent in In re Dannenberg (2005) 34 Cal.4th 1061, 1100 [ 23 Cal.Rptr.3d 417 , 104 P.3d 783 ] (dis. opn. of Moreno, J.). In that case, the majority held that a denial of parole was justified if there was some evidence that the particular circumstances of the prisoner’s underlying offense beyond the “minimum elements” indicated exceptional callousness and cruelty. (Id. at p. 1098.) I found the minimum elements test to be both unworkable and not consistent with the statutory mandate to normally grant parole to life prisoners. (Id. at pp. 1101-1104 (dis. opn. of Moreno, J.).) I would have instead required an inquiry into whether the commitment offense was particularly egregious as measured by the Board of Parole Hearings’ (Board’s) own matrices for determining the seriousness of the commitment offense. (Id. at pp. 1106-1107 (dis. opn. of Moreno, J.); see Pen. Code, § 3041, subd. (a); Cal. Code Regs., tit. 15, § 2403.)

After observing the Courts of Appeal grappling with the parole suitability issue since Dannenberg was decided, I now agree with the majority opinion that neither a minimum…