Once Sentenced to Life in Prison Inmate Pardoned in California

            California pardoned Sara Kruzan last Friday, a woman who was convicted in 1994 for the murder of a man who she claimed sexually abused and trafficked her. Governor Gavin Newsom, the man who put through the pardon, did so as a part of a larger project to go through pardon and clemency requests throughout the state, providing over three dozen throughout the day.

            Kruzan was 16 when in 1994 she killed George Gilbert Howard in a Riverside, California motel room. According to CBS News, during the trial the following year, Kruzan described the sexual abuse she experienced by Howard since she was 13 and the ways in which he would traffic her for sex to other men.

            She was sentenced to life in prison, where she served 18 years of her sentence. In 2011, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger altered her life sentence to life with the possibility of parole, before two years later Governor Jerry Brown allowed for her release from prison. According to PEOPLE, Newsom’s pardon does not eliminate the conviction’s record, but it allows for Kruzan to engage in her civic responsibilities, such as voting, once again. His decision for the pardon comes from the transformation she has made in her life since her conviction, dedicating herself to community service.

      Kruzan is an excellent example of the growing movement across state governments and the legal system looking to soften life sentences imposed on those who committed their crimes as a juvenile. Since the decision of Graham v. Florida by the Supreme Court in 2010, the use of life without the chance for parole for juveniles has been deemed unconstitutional, and so many who were sentenced to such before the ruling are trying now to gain their freedom after all these years.