San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
‘Power of redemption’: Inmate released after serving 44 years
After nearly a lifetime in prison, Paul Redd had become accustomed to rejection.
He’d been behind bars for more than four decades, and his legal bids to escape solitary confinement had fallen on deaf ears for more than a quarter of a century. The state parole board was equally crushing. Redd, 63, can recall at least 13 denials, but eventually he lost track.
So, when Redd learned his firstdegree murder conviction was up for a resentencing hearing at San Francisco Superior Court this month, he kept waiting for that familiar, bureaucratic hammer to drop.
“You’ve been in prison 44 years, I’m thinking people are going to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute,’ ” Redd said, noting that he expected opposition or at least another delay. “But when that didn’t happen, I started thinking maybe they know something I don’t know.”
A San Francisco judge or
dered Redd’s release on May 15, and six days later, he walked out of the California Medical Facility in Vacaville a free man. Tears soaked his cheeks as family pulled him into their arms at a nearby park — social-distancing guidelines be damned for the moment.
Redd is now the fifth person to be released with the help of a new San Francisco public defender’s office unit that focuses solely on postconviction relief. The unit offers a fresh eye to sometimes decadesold cases, many of which were sentenced under harsher “tough-on-crime” laws that no longer exist today.
The unit, which was created in September, seizes on two new laws that make it easier for people with protracted or unjust sentences to win their freedom. Those efforts have benefited from a unique relationship with San Francisco’s top prosecutor, Chesa Boudin, who previously worked for the public defender’s office.
San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju said his attorneys have witnessed firsthand the “wisdom” of resentencing and returning people to their communities.
“Our office believes in the power of redemption,” he said. “We also see, on a daily basis, the many factors that can lead to convictions or pleas that have little to do with a true and thorough analysis of the facts.”
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Paul Redd had just celebrated his 19th birthday in December 1976 when a drug dealer was gunned down near some railroad tracks in San Francisco. At the time, Redd, an Oakland resident, was living in “that lifestyle” and dealing drugs himself.
He and two other men were charged with firstdegree murder, but one of the men testified at trial that Redd pulled the trigger. That man’s charges were dropped, and the other was given a twoyear deal, said Redd, who pleaded not guilty. He said he knew the men but was not at the scene of the murder and didn’t know the victim. With no other physical evidence, a jury found Redd guilty and sentenced him to seven years to life in prison.
“The trial lasted for three days and jury lasted less than an hour in deliberation,” Redd said.
Redd served more than 30 years of his sentence in solitary confinement at multiple facilities, including about 25 years at Pelican Bay. Prison officials alleged that he belonged to a gang and conspired with others to assault prison guards, which he denies.
Because of his age at the time of the crime, Redd was referred to the San Francisco public defender’s postconviction unit for a youth offender review. But a different path emerged when the team started looking at Redd’s case. Danielle Harris, a public defender who heads the unit, thought Redd could have a shot at resentencing — an accelerated route to freedom that doesn’t involve parole boards.
Judges have long had the power to consider reducing a previously imposed term, but legal changes in the last two years have broadened the scope to qualify.
AB1812, which passed two years ago, allows courts to consider postconviction factors like a person’s disciplinary record, age, proof of rehabilitation and whether release is in the interest of justice. And beginning last year, AB2942 has allowed district attorneys to petition a court for a reduced sentence. Only prison officials could previously do so.
For Harris, Redd fit the bill. His health had been waning for years and his record behind bars was striking.
During his time in “the hole,” Redd was one of 16 representatives in a 2013 hunger strike that drew national attention to the state’s solitary units. He also was a plaintiff in a lawsuit that drastically limited California prisons’ use of the measure.
After he returned to the general prison population in 2014, Redd worked in the hospice unit at the Vacaville prison and helped create a cancer support group and an antiviolence education group.
“So, we put together this just remarkable package, really sort of beyond anything I’ve ever seen ... and presented it to the district attorney’s office,” Harris said of the April request.
Within days, Harris received a response from San Francisco prosecutors: “They were, in fact, willing to move forward,” she said.
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California lawmakers have enacted a wave of criminal justice reforms in recent years that reduced prison time, boosted parole grants and helped to deflate a prison population that still remains over capacity. But most of these measures don’t apply automatically, and candidates must still be reviewed on a casebycase basis.
To handle the load, prosecutors and public defenders around the state have created units dedicated to reviewing cases of people who have already been convicted.
While most units have largely focused on wrongful convictions and reforms centered on lowlevel offenses, these efforts have benefited only a fraction of the people spending lengthy or excessive stints in prison, said Hillary Blout, founder of For The People.
“We still haven’t come up with solutions, or enough types of reforms, for those serving an offense categorized as ‘serious and violent,’ ” said Blout, whose Oakland nonprofit supports reentry initiatives. “And many of them, just based on data, are less likely to reoffend.”
The recent resentencing laws have opened new opportunities for people convicted of serious crimes.
Since 2018, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has made 1,498 referrals for resentencing and 436 of them, about 29%, have resulted in reductions in sentences, said Terry Thornton, deputy press secretary for the prison system.
Blout, who drafted the bill that allows prosecutors to petition for resentencing, said voters expect their district attorneys to enforce the laws they pass. Decades ago, those were toughoncrime laws. But now voters are demanding reforms.
“It’s not swift, it does take resources, time and analysis,” Blout said. “But we are ushering in more and more D.A.s into a conversation that they hadn’t historically been a part of.”
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San Francisco prosecutors have initiated nine resentencing petitions to courts since District Attorney Chesa Boudin came into office in January, all of which resulted in release. Of those nine, three were referred by public defenders, three came from the prisons and three were from the prosecutors’ own initiative.
The postconviction unit has found an eager partner in Boudin, who served in the public defender’s office and vowed during his campaign to combat mass incarceration.
Boudin said the public defender’s office has been instrumental in moving cases forward to resentencing “because they have a unit dedicated to it, they have the resources to do things like get in touch with the family member and access reentry plans.”
Several factors stood out about Redd’s case, Boudin said, including his reentry plan, prison resume and the concerns about the evidence against him.
“In this case, there’s no other legitimate purpose served by continuing to incarcerate him,” Boudin said.
Redd was listening by phone on May 15 when a San Francisco judge ruled that his firstdegree murder conviction should be reduced to manslaughter. The designation reduced his sentence to 17 years, which Redd had already served more than twice over.
He was ordered to be released from prison “as soon as possible.” Through the call, Redd could be heard erupting in tears.
“I’d like to thank you all, at the district attorney’s office ... and everybody, for giving me a second chance,” he said.
He is still undergoing chemotherapy while staying at his nephew’s Benicia apartment, learning the nuances of a smartphone and eating all of his favorite foods. Because of coronavirus concerns, his first meal was takeout: pancakes and a rib eye steak.
Redd received several offers to work as a paralegal, but he ultimately landed a research job at the socialjustice organization American Friends Service Committee in Oakland. He said he wants to shine a light on the resentencing laws that fasttracked his way to freedom.
“I want to try to convince more district attorneys and more counties to do the same,” Redd said. “I want to bring attention to those who should be out as well.”
The public defender’s postconviction unit is now working with 61 other potential candidates for resentencing, 40 of whom are serving life terms under California’s “threestrikes” laws.