In Re Lawrence and Hayward v. Marshall: Reexamining the Due Process Protections of California Lifers Seeking Parole

In California prisons today, approximately 30,000 inmates are serving potential life sentences but are eligible for release on parole after serving minimum terms of confinement. Most of these “lifers” are convicted murderers serving sentences of twenty-five or fifteen years to life. Approximately 4,000 lifers apply for parole each year. The Board of Parole Hearings, the agency within the executive branch responsible for making parole determinations, recommends parole two to five percent of the time. Of that two to five percent, even fewer lifers are actually released. The Governor has the power to approve or disapprove parole recommendations made by the Board of Parole Hearings. During his four years in office, former Governor Gray Davis reviewed 371 parole recommendations and approved parole nine times. Since taking office in late 2003, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been slightly less stringent than Governor Davis, but stringent nonetheless: as