Parole

Gov. Jerry Brown continues to set himself apart from past governors when it comes to giving criminals a second chance, telling the Legislature on Friday he approved the majority of 2012 parole grants for convicted killers. The governor's report identifies 91 cases in which Brown reversed a parole grant for an imprisoned killer now serving a life sentence, citing reasons those felons continue to pose a public safety threat. Two other cases were sent back to the Board of Parole Hearings for review.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown continues to set himself apart from past governors when it comes to giving criminals a second chance, telling the Legislature on Friday that he rejected only a small portion of the hundreds of convicted killers cleared last year for release from prison. The report follows Brown's disclosure that he pardoned 128 people last year, mostly expunging the records of felons who had served their time. The governor signed off on parole for 377 convicted killers who have been serving life sentences, according to numbers provided by his staff.

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown has about a month to decide whether to release a former follower of notorious killer Charles Manson from prison. Bruce Davis, 70, has been behind bars since 1970, convicted with Manson of the murder of a musician and a stuntman. He was not involved in the Manson family's infamous 1969 slayings of Sharon Tate and four others in a Benedict Canyon home. For the second time, a state parole panel has determined that Davis should be freed. The parole board forwarded the decision to Brown on Friday, starting a 30-day period for the governor to agree, request a full board hearing or reverse the decision.

SACRAMENTO - Jose Luis Saenz had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list since 2009, with a $100,000 bounty and his face in post offices across the United States before he was captured last week. But amid the international hunt for Saenz - also known as "Peanut Joe Smiley," among other aliases, authorities say - California parole officials dropped their warrant for his arrest and dismissed the alleged killer and Mexican drug cartel associate from parole. California "no longer had jurisdiction over Saenz," agency spokesman Luis Patino said Wednesday.

When asked how he pleaded to the murder of his 11-year-old daughter, Ashley, the father - his once full cheeks sunken and his skin now a pasty white against the dark green of the suicide prevention frock - was silent for a few seconds, his eyes wandering blankly as if in a daze. He then croaked something barely audible. An interpreter repeated it loud and clear: "Guilty. " As he admitted also murdering his 10-year-old son, Alexander, Dae Kwon Yun dropped his head to his chest.

An Orange County woman who conspired with her lover to kill her husband as he slept and who later escaped from prison with a guard has been recommended for parole. Jeanette Lynn Hughes, 58, was convicted in 1985 of plotting to murder her husband, James Hughes, as he slept in their Huntington Beach home. She was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison. The state parole board granted Hughes' request on Friday in Sacramento after a hearing that stretched more than seven hours, said prosecutor Paul Chrisopoulos with the Orange County district attorney's office.

On the orders of a San Diego appeals court, California prison officials have agreed to release a bedridden inmate whom court officials describe as "an angry, repulsive person. " The quadriplegic inmate, Steven Martinez, was the first in 2011 to apply and then be denied release under California's then-new medical parole law allowing the release of inmates who require 24-hour nursing care. The program was designed to save the state money by moving California's costliest prisoners into community hospitals and nursing centers, where the federal government will pay half the bill for their care.

SACRAMENTO - State corrections officials are poised to drop the arrest warrants of thousands of parole violators, releasing them from state supervision at a time when their detention would complicate efforts to ease crowding in state and county lockups. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation intends to begin a massive review next week of more than 9,200 outstanding warrants, starting with individuals who were convicted of nonviolent crimes and absconded from supervision.

Re "Support for ending death penalty surges," USC Dornsife/Times Poll, Oct. 26 If every murder that subjected a defendant to a sentence of life without parole took place outside prison, Proposition 34 might be workable. However, this is not the case. More than 700 death row inmates would have their sentences commuted to life without parole under Proposition 34. Thousands of other inmates are already serving life without parole or sentences so lengthy that they will never be released.