Nearly three decades after receiving a death sentence for kidnapping and murdering Polly Klaas, California child killer Richard Allen Davis is pushing for the sentence to be overturned, following a recent criminal justice reform law.
According to prosecutors, Davis based appeal on Senate Bill 483, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 and effective as of 2022. The law nullifies sentencing enhancements for prior convictions related to certain nonviolent felonies and drug offenses.
Davis seeks to apply this law to his entire sentence, but prosecutors say that it’s “nonsensical,” The Press Democrat reports.
“He requests that the court grant him an entirely new penalty phase jury trial, a remedy that is clearly outside the scope of relief under (SB483),” Sonoma County Deputy District Attorney Sarah Brooks stated.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Davis snatched Polly from a slumber party at her family home in Petaluma, California, in 1993. After sneaking into the residence, he abducted the victim by knifepoint and then strangled her before dumping her body around 50 miles away.
Davis was released from prison for kidnapping a woman just months before the murder. Public outrage over his lengthy criminal record prompted California to enact stricter sentencing laws for repeat offenders.
However, in response to a burgeoning prison population, the state has since moved to stop sentencing enhancements for prior convictions. Davis claims that the changes should allow resentencing in his case, which could potentially remove him from death row.
“It takes decades-old cases of extreme pain and throws it back into everybody’s faces so we can give the criminal yet another chance. Where’s my consideration?” Polly’s father, Marc Klaas, asked Mercury News.
In a court filing submitted in February, Davis’s attorneys contended that the law implemented in 2022 nullifies the sentencing enhancements associated with Davis’ four previous felony convictions and three previous prison sentences.
Prosecutors argued that the law does not pertain to his death sentence for Polly’s murder. Instead, they asserted that it should only impact approximately two years of his prison term related to his other charges.
“If my family can be subjected to the possible recall of the 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,” Mark Klaas said in a statement.
Davis is currently on death row at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in San Quentin.
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[Feature Photo: Polly Klaas via Mark Klaas]
