Richard Allen Davis, one of California’s most notorious convicted killers whose 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas inspired a crackdown on serial offenders, is making a fresh bid to overturn his death sentence in a San Jose courtroom Friday.
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Davis’ lawyers argue that a recent criminal justice reform law that invalidated sentencing enhancements entitles Davis to have his sentence reconsidered. Sonoma County prosecutors and Polly’s father, Marc Klaas, who became a crime victim advocate after her murder, disagree.
“We had every expectation that the sentence of death recommended by the jury and imposed by Judge Thomas Hastings would keep him segregated from society for the rest of his life,” Klaas said in a statement. “We could not have been more wrong!”
The crime generated worldwide headlines: On Oct. 1, 1993, Polly Klaas was having a slumber party with two friends at her mother’s Petaluma home when Davis entered her bedroom armed with a knife, bound and blindfolded the friends, and kidnapped Polly.It was 10:30 at night.
Polly’s body was found on Dec. 4, buried in a shallow grave near Cloverdale.
Davis, who’d been in and out of prison for various crimes including four serious felonies, was charged with her kidnapping and murder. His trial was moved to Santa Clara County because of intense publicity around the case that shocked the state.
Davis, now 69, made obscene gestures at the San Jose jury that convicted him in 1996. He still has another appeal pending.
Richard Allen Davis gestures toward the television camera after the verdict was read in a San Jose courtroom, June 18, 1996. (AP Photo/John Burgess, pool)
Lawyers for Davis argued in a February court filing that a state law approved in 2021 that took effect in 2022 invalidated certain sentencing enhancements and entitle him to resentencing.
Prosecutors with the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office argue the law doesn’t apply to his death sentence for Polly’s murder and only would affect two years worth of his prison sentence on other charges related to the crime.
Klaas argued that “if Polly’s killer is somehow able to prevail, this is the tip of the iceberg.”
SAUSALITO, CA – MARCH 13: Marc Klaas shows a portrait of his daughter, Polly Klaas, at his home in Sausalito, Calif., March 13, 2019. Polly was killed in 1993 when she was 12. Her killer, Richard Allen Davis, has been on death row for the past 23 years. (Karl Mondon /Bay Area News Group)
“If my family can be subjected to the possible recall of capital sentence of a condemned murderer who, prior to murdering Polly, had multiple convictions for violence towards women and was diagnosed as a sexually sadistic psychopath, then any victim’s family who thought that justice was served in the courtroom is in for a shocking new reality,” Klaas said. “Thousands of violent offenders will follow suit, so lock your doors, protect your children, and pray that your family does not fall prey to the violence and destruction that is sure to follow.”
Capital punishment in California has been on hold since March 13, 2019, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order for a moratorium on the death penalty in the form of a reprieve for all people sentenced to death. The order also calls for repealing the state’s lethal injection protocol and the immediate closing of the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison.
But the order does not provide for the release of any individual from prison or otherwise alter any current conviction or sentence.
Check back on this developing story.