Oakland: New parole hearing ordered in 1987 slaying

A state appeals court has ordered a new parole hearing for an Oakland man who is in prison for taking part in a 1987 murder, saying the parole board had no evidence for its findings that he lacked insight into his crime and would be dangerous if released.

Roy Butler, now 46, was 20 when he and Jane Woods, an acquaintance, helped plan an attack on 17-year-old Richard Davis, who had been beating Woods, his girlfriend, and caused her to miscarry her pregnancy. Butler was present when another man, Lanzester Hymes, fatally stabbed Davis in Oakland.

Butler and Woods pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Woods was paroled in 2000, the first woman to be released under a state law recognizing battered women’s syndrome as a defense in criminal cases. Hymes pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and remains in prison.

State prison officials recommended probation for Butler, saying he had played a minor role in the crime and had no serious criminal record, but he was sentenced to 15 years to life and has been denied parole five times. At his last hearing in 2012, the Board of Parole Hearings said Butler’s statements failed to show adequate insight into the murder, and he hadn’t provided enough documentation for his plans to live and work after his release.

In a 2-1 ruling Wednesday, the First District Court of Appeal said the board had ignored many years of prison psychiatrists’ reports that agreed that Butler had fully accepted responsibility for his crime and expressed remorse.

Butler also has “realistic parole plans,” including offers of housing and jobs, said the majority opinion by Steven Brick, an Alameda County Superior Court judge temporarily assigned to the appeals court.

The court told the board to hold a new hearing and decide whether any deficiencies in his parole plans justified prolonging Butler’s sentence, which has already been much longer than average for his crime.