Citing the high cost of death penal­ty appeals and dif­fi­cul­ty obtain­ing cus­tody of an out-of-state pris­on­er, the Kern County, California District Attorney’s office has agreed to reduce the 1989 death sen­tence imposed upon Clarence Ray (pic­tured) to a sen­tence of life with­out parole. Ray’s lawyers had filed a peti­tion chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his California con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. The par­ties reached agree­ment that Ray’s death sen­tence would be reversed in exchange for his giv­ing up the remain­der of his appeals. Prosecutors said that fight­ing the peti­tion for a reduced sen­tence would have cost the District Attorney’s office more than $100,000. They also indi­cat­ed that they faced sub­stan­tial obsta­cles in obtain­ing cus­tody of Ray. Ray had con­fessed to the California mur­der while in prison in Michigan, where he is serv­ing a life sen­tence for a sep­a­rate crime. California pros­e­cu­tors said that because Ray first had to serve that sen­tence, he would not be turned over to California author­i­ties until he died. They said that offi­cials in Michigan — which has not had the death penal­ty since 1847 — had inti­mat­ed that Michigan would not release cus­tody of inmates to states in which they face exe­cu­tion. A California Superior Court judge last week approved the deal and resen­tenced Ray to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. 

(“DA agrees to over­turn death penal­ty con­vic­tion to save tax pay­ers mon­ey,” Kern Golden Empire, July 23, 2015.) See Costs.

Citation Guide