This weekend brings some surprising news from California Governor Gavin Newsom amid the ongoing news about the Coronavirus crisis.
The governor has commuted the sentence of Jo Ann Parks, whose murder case is chronicled in my latest book, Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime That Wasn’t.
Here’s what I know so far:
After spending 28 years in prison, Parks’ sentence of life without parole has been reduced to 27 years to life. That makes her immediately eligible for parole.
Now 54, Parks was convicted in 1993 of deliberately setting fire to her Los Angeles home and trapping her three children inside. She has always maintained her innocence.
Citing false forensic evidence used against her at trial, the California Innocence Project has sought to overturn the conviction, asserting the fire was a tragic accident, not a crime.
My own investigation of the case documents how flawed fire science, false testimony and investigative tunnel vision contributed to Parks’ conviction, as it has in dozens of other arson cases prosecuted amid changing scientific knowledge. (Here’s my LA Times piece on the case and the problem of flawed forensics.)
Parks, who was 26 when she began her prison sentence, has told me she had become resigned to the prospect of dying behind bars. So she had no idea why she was summoned Friday to a prison administrator’s office at the women’s penitentiary in Chowchilla, California. Parks described what happened next in an email to her friend and longtime supporter Mary Ross.
“Hi Mary, I ask for you to sit down. I was called to the captain’s office and Captain Norman said then governor said to tell me I’ve been commuted to 27 years to life.”
Ross is the daughter of Robert Lowe, an arson expert and former Los Angeles fire captain who testified at Parks’ 1993 trial and believed her to be innocent. He fought for her release for two decades before he died of cancer in 2014, and his daughter has continued his efforts.
The governor’s decision on Parks’ case was one of 26 pardons and commutations he issued yesterday.
California Innocence Project attorney Raquel Cohen told me late Friday the governor’s commutation order speaks at length about Parks’ strong record of education, employment, counseling and work with disabled inmates. She said that should help persuade the parole board she deserves release. However, like all other legal proceedings, parole hearings are on hold during the coronavirus epidemic.
Meanwhile, Cohen says she will continue pushing the case for overturning Parks’ conviction before the California Supreme Court — regardless of the parole board’s decision in the case.
Read Parks’ commutation certificate, the governor’s press release, a statement from the California Innocence Project, and an LA Times oped on forensic failures.