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California Inmate Convicted As Minor Resentenced Under New Law

Inmate Convicted As Teen Resentenced Under New Law
Lydia O'Connor
By 

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA - DECEMBER 19: (Editorial Use Only) Frank Fuller, age 66, walks back to his prison cell after taking medication at California Men's Colony prison on December 19, 2013 in San Luis Obispo, California. Fuller is helped through his daily life by the Gold Coats program, a volunteer care program where healthy prisoners care for elderly prisoners who either need general assistance with mobility and every day life or who also struggle with Alzheimer's and dementia. The program, the first of it's kind in the country, has existed for approximately 25 years. Fuller is serving a 35-years-to-life sentence; he has been incarcerated since 1990. He has been in the Gold Coats program for over six years. He says he is serving time for the murder of his third wife, who he says he shot with a rifle in a drunken rage after learning she had been having an affair with another man. He has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from serving five years in the Navy in the Vietnam War; he also has Hepatitis C. Fuller, who took shrapnel in his legs from a mortar round, says he held many different positions while fighting in Vietnam, including being a machine gunner; he says he still suffers occasional flash backs. He says has served one other sentence for murdering a man with a .45 caliber gun in a fight. Between Vietnam and prison, he says he worked in the oil fields and in manufacturing. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA - DECEMBER 19: (Editorial Use Only) Frank Fuller, age 66, walks back to his prison cell after taking medication at California Men's Colony prison on December 19, 2013 in San Luis Obispo, California. Fuller is helped through his daily life by the Gold Coats program, a volunteer care program where healthy prisoners care for elderly prisoners who either need general assistance with mobility and every day life or who also struggle with Alzheimer's and dementia. The program, the first of it's kind in the country, has existed for approximately 25 years. Fuller is serving a 35-years-to-life sentence; he has been incarcerated since 1990. He has been in the Gold Coats program for over six years. He says he is serving time for the murder of his third wife, who he says he shot with a rifle in a drunken rage after learning she had been having an affair with another man. He has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from serving five years in the Navy in the Vietnam War; he also has Hepatitis C. Fuller, who took shrapnel in his legs from a mortar round, says he held many different positions while fighting in Vietnam, including being a machine gunner; he says he still suffers occasional flash backs. He says has served one other sentence for murdering a man with a .45 caliber gun in a fight. Between Vietnam and prison, he says he worked in the oil fields and in manufacturing. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

A youth offender who was serving life without parole has been resentenced under a California law that allows those tried as minors to request a resentencing hearing.

Edel Gonzalez is the first to be granted a hearing under SB 9, introduced by state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) and signed into law in 2012. With a new sentence of 25 years to life in prison, Gonzales is now eligible to apply for parole in less than three years.

"Young people have an incredible capacity for rehabilitation," Yee, a child psychologist by training, said in a press release. "Sentencing them to life without parole is tantamount to simply throwing them away, without acknowledging their ability to grow, change, and become productive members of society."

Gonzalez was originally sentenced for his participation in a 1993 carjacking that resulted in the driver's murder, although he was only 16 at the time and did not pull the trigger. During his incarceration, he has maintained a clean record and taken advantage of the prison's educational offerings.

The United States is the only country that sentences juveniles to life without parole -- a practice that Yee has argued ignores research suggesting that minors should not be held to the same decision-making standards as adults.

"The neuroscience is clear: Brain maturation continues well through adolescence and thus impulse control, planning and critical thinking skills are not yet fully developed," he said while campaigning for the bill's passage. "SB 9 reflects that science and provides the opportunity for compassion and rehabilitation that we should exercise with minors. SB 9 is not a get-out-of-jail-free card; it is an incredibly modest proposal that respects victims, international law and the fact that children have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than adults."

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