New law gives murder convicts hope for freedom
Adnan Khan wasn’t the killer, but he is serving 25 years to life at San Quentin State Prison for murder.
In 2003, Khan helped plan and execute a robbery in Antioch that ended with an acquaintance fatally stabbing their would-be weed dealer. Khan said he never knew a weapon would be used, but because the robbery resulted in a homicide, California’s felony murder rule allowed Khan to be held as equally responsible for the slaying as the man who wielded the knife. A Contra Costa County jury found him guilty of first-degree murder.
But a new bill signed into law Sunday by Gov. Jerry Brown will significantly narrow the felony murder rule and could give Khan and hundreds of other California lifers a chance at freedom.
The new law means prosecutors can charge a suspect with murder only if he or she killed
someone, solicited the killing or acted with “reckless indifference to human life” when someone was slain. It also allows inmates convicted under the felony murder rule to petition to have their convictions vacated and sentences reduced to match the lesser crimes.
“I was happy, crying — everything was about, ‘I finally get to see my brother,’ ” Saba Khan said about Adnan Khan. “Finally, he’s coming home, hopefully soon.”
When asked about Khan’s chances, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County district attorney’s office said this week that it’s too early to comment on individual cases.
There’s no official data showing how many people are convicted under the felony murder rule, according to advocates for the bill. And because the rule was narrowed and not abolished, not everyone convicted under the statute will be eligible for resentencing.
Prosecutors, defense attorneys and courts are bracing for what could be a wave of petitions, as well as potential litigation. District attorneys and public defenders said they will review current and old murder cases to see which ones qualify.
Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods said his office has already received several calls from prisoners about the law; some even before the bill was signed.
Woods said there are multiple cases out of his office that would probably qualify. Some will be straightforward, he said, while others may be more labor intensive and require litigation.
Even with the extra work, Woods called SB1437 by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, a “great bill.”
“If someone’s been convicted for a crime, and the punishment far outweighs the nature of the crime, the onus is on us to go back and fix that,” he said.
Kate Chatfield, the bill’s lead drafter and policy director for Re:store Justice, an advocacy group that pushes for criminaljustice reform in California, said she and her colleagues are working to educate prisoners about the changes.
“We are already preparing a petition,” she said. “We will be doing training, and we will be getting the petitions to every prison law library in California.”
The law isn’t an automatic ticket out of prison. Prosecutors will inspect each case individually, and in some instances may choose to fight resentencing.
Max Szabo, a spokesman for the San Francisco district attorney’s office, said the felony murder rule was only one theory of murder that prosecutors can allege. In some instances, prosecutors may argue that the defendant is still guilty of murder.
Szabo said the office isn’t waiting for defendants to file petitions, but actively assessing past and current cases to see if felony murder is the only way a defendant would be charged with the most serious of crimes.
“Where the facts and evidence dictate that a defendant could only have been convicted pursuant to the felony murder rule, we will be assessing what remedies are appropriate pursuant to the guidance provided by SB1437,” he said.
A legislative analysis estimates that the law could affect between 400 and 800 California inmates serving first-degreemurder sentences.
Those who qualify will be resentenced to the term they would have received for the underlying felony, like robbery, Chatfield said. In many cases, defendants have already served this sentence and will be eligible for release and subject to parole.
“It’s a game changer,” said Jacque Wilson, a San Francisco public defender whose brother, Neko Wilson, is awaiting trial in a felony murder case.
“Prior to today, the law and the facts were against us,” he said Monday. “Now the law and the facts are for us.”
Neko Wilson was one of six people charged in the 2009 slayings of Gary and Sandra De Bartolo, a couple from Fresno County killed during a robbery at a marijuana grow house. Though Neko Wilson said he never went in the house, prosecutors alleged he helped plan the robbery and charged him with first-degree murder.
The retroactivity provision of the law doesn’t apply to Neko Wilson since he hasn’t gone to trial yet. But it could essentially have the same effect.
Before a recent hearing, a Fresno County prosecutor told Jacque Wilson that he foresaw Neko Wilson receiving credit for time served if the bill passed, said Jacque Wilson, who is also acting as his brother’s attorney. Neko Wilson would have to plead guilty to two robberies, Jacque Wilson said, but he’s come a long way from the initial threat of the death penalty.
Jacque Wilson said he thinks his brother would take the deal.
“All he wants is out,” he said, noting that freedom could come as soon as Neko Wilson’s next hearing on Oct. 18. “From his perspective, regardless of what legal issues remain, he just wants out.”