SACRAMENTO — Winning a parole date is no easy feat for California murderers. Linda Ricchio, serving 27 years to life for killing her former lover, figures her odds of release are slim to none.
She blames her uphill battle on the identity of her 1987 victim, Ronald Ruse. Ruse's sister, Susan Fisher, sits on the state Board of Prison Terms -- the very board scheduled to decide this week whether Ricchio is rehabilitated and deserves a second chance.
Ricchio says that's unfair, and wants her bid for parole heard in Superior Court. For five years, she notes, Fisher was director of a major crime victims group now lobbying against the inmate's release.
The legal challenge comes as Fisher -- appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last February -- prepares for her confirmation hearing in the Senate at the end of this month.
It also reflects a concern voiced by inmate advocates since Fisher's selection: Can a leading figure in the crime victims movement be impartial in judging those who have committed the gravest crime of all?
"Often, I think people in victims' rights organizations tend to make judgments based on a particular offense, rather than assessing each case on its individual merits as the law requires," said Donald Specter of the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit firm that monitors conditions for inmates. "That's the concern."
Fisher, 51, declined to be interviewed. She will not sit on the panel assigned to consider parole for Ricchio, but the inmate fears that Fisher's colleagues will be influenced nonetheless.
A spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger said the governor had no qualms about whether his appointee can be fair.
"She has already granted parole [to other inmates], so she has shown through her actions a willingness to consider these cases on a case-by-case basis," press secretary Margita Thompson said. "The governor, in making such appointments, always receives assurances that the person can be impartial and fulfill the mission of the board."
A Republican from Oceanside, Fisher is the second of Schwarzenegger's three parole board appointees to stir controversy. The first, Richard Loa, stepped down in August amid warnings from Senate leaders that he would not win confirmation. Loa, a Palmdale city councilman, drew sharp complaints for his questioning of prisoners during board hearings.
The third appointee is Chairwoman Margarita Perez, a Democrat from Cameron Park. Though initially criticized for a lack of experience, Perez is expected to be confirmed when she appears with Fisher before the Senate Rules Committee on Jan. 26.
Commissioners on the nine-member board, which evaluates serious offenders whose sentences make them eligible for release, are paid $99,693 a year; the chairwoman earns $103,317.
Fisher is not the first parole board member related to a crime victim, but her leadership on behalf of victims makes her the most prominent. In the 1990s, the board had two commissioners -- John Gillis and Steven Baker -- who had lost a child to murder. Both men were members of Parents of Murdered Children, a board spokesman said.
A news release on Fisher's appointment said she had been director of the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau since 1999, and a member of that group's board for seven years. She also belonged to two other victims groups and, since 2000, was president of Citizens for Law and Order.
Articulate and poised, she often spoke at legislative hearings before her appointment, and was routinely quoted in media reports on everything from the death penalty to a prison smoking ban. In 2002, she testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, recounting her brother's murder as she lobbied for a bill to prevent the release of personal information.
That activism triggered alarm among inmate advocates when she was named to the parole board. They questioned whether someone with a deep personal loss and strong connections to other victims could keep an open mind when deciding whether incarcerated murderers and kidnappers had changed their ways.
Critics also argued that if the governor named someone aligned with victims, he also should add a member familiar with the concerns of prisoners. The other commissioners have backgrounds in law enforcement.
Ricchio's lawyer shares those concerns, and has filed legal papers seeking to move his client's parole hearing to Superior Court. Although Fisher is not one of two board members assigned to judge Ricchio's readiness for release at a hearing Tuesday, her presence on the larger board amounts to "a serious conflict of interest that works against my client," attorney Rich Pfeiffer said.
In his motion, Pfeiffer said "it is reasonable to infer" that Fisher has shared her feelings about the case with co-workers, arguing that blocking his client's release "has apparently become a mission for the commissioner."
