BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 648 (Block)
Hearing Date: 07/11/2011 Amended: 07/06/2011
Consultant: Jolie Onodera Policy Vote: Public Safety 7-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 648 would require that at least 10 days before
the Governor acts upon an application for a commutation of
sentence, written notice of the intention to apply for the
commutation be served upon the district attorney of the county
where the offender was convicted. In addition, this bill would:
1) Authorize the district attorney to submit a written
recommendation to the Governor regarding the commutation;
2) Require the district attorney to make reasonable efforts
to notify the victim(s) of the crime or related crimes, as
well as the victims' families, who may also submit a
recommendation to the Governor regarding the commutation;
3) Recast existing law that requires the Governor to report
to the Legislature at the beginning of each session,
information on each case of reprieve, pardon, and
commutation, and require the report to be made available to
the public.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Notification to victimsUnknown; likely minor state-reimbursable
General
and families costs
Public availability of Minor and absorbable costs to the General
report to Legislature Governor's Office
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STAFF COMMENTS:
The California Constitution provides that subject to application
procedures provided by statute, the Governor, on conditions the
Governor deems proper, may grant a reprieve, pardon, and
commutation, after sentence has been entered except in cases of
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impeachment. Further, the Governor may not grant a pardon or
commutation to a person twice convicted of a felony except on
recommendation of the Supreme Court, four judges concurring.
Existing statutory law requires that at least 10 days before the
Governor acts upon any application for a pardon, written notice
of the intention to apply therefore, signed by the person
applying, shall be served upon the district attorney in the
county where the conviction was had, and proof by affidavit of
the service must be presented to the Governor. This bill would
provide that the same process of written notification to
district attorneys for an application for a pardon be provided
for an application for a commutation of sentence. This bill
would also authorize the district attorney to submit a written
recommendation to the Governor for or against commutation of
sentence.
This bill would require the district attorney to make reasonable
efforts to notify the victim or victims of the crime or related
crimes, and the families of the victims, who may also submit a
recommendation to the Governor for or against commutation of
sentence. By placing additional requirements on district
attorneys, costs incurred for the notification of victims and
families would be state-reimbursable. Only 14 commutations have
been granted over the past 35 years. Additionally, based on
information from the Board of Parole Hearings, three
applications for commutation of sentence were submitted in 2009,
and five applications were submitted in 2010. As a result,
state-reimbursable costs are likely to be minor.
Staff notes a proposal in 2009-10 to commute the sentences of
approximately 8,500 undocumented felons who had been identified
by the federal government for deportation upon their release
from state prison was considered but not implemented. The
likelihood of a similar proposal being considered in the future
is unknown, however, if such a proposal were to be implemented,
state-reimbursable costs resulting from the provisions of this
bill could be more significant.
Existing law requires the Governor to, at the beginning of every
session, communicate to the Legislature, in addition to each
case of reprieve or pardon, each commutation, stating the name
of the person convicted, the crime of which the person was
convicted, the sentence and its date, the date of the
commutation and the reason for granting the same. This bill
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would recast the above provision and require the Governor to
file a written report with the Legislature that shall include
each application that was granted for reprieve, pardon, or
commutation, as specified, and would require the written report
to be made available to the public. Costs to the Governor's
Office to make the written report available to the public are
estimated to be minor and absorbable within existing resources.