By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES, Oct 28 (Reuters) – A California woman who has
served nearly two decades in prison for murdering her pimp when
she was 16, becoming the face of a campaign to reform the
treatment of young offenders, could be freed this week after
Governor Jerry Brown upheld her parole.
The impending release of Sara Kruzan, now 35, from the
Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla was hailed as
a watershed moment by activists who have fought on her behalf
for more than five years.
“This is a huge victory,” said state Senator Leland Yee, who
called Kruzan the poster child for a bill that became law this
year allowing offenders sentenced to life without parole for
crimes committed before age 18 the chance to petition for a new
hearing on their sentence.
“She really epitomizes why it’s so important to review a lot
of these cases where kids are sentenced to life without the
possibility of parole,” Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco, told
Reuters in an interview.
Kruzan, who advocates say was raised by an abusive,
drug-addicted single mother, said in a 2009 Human Rights Watch
video that she was sexually assaulted at age 11 by the man she
would later kill.
Within two years, George Howard had her working as a child
prostitute. In March 1994, two months after her 16th birthday,
she shot him to death in a motel room in Riverside, California.
Kruzan lost a bid to stand trial as a juvenile and was found
guilty of first-degree murder by a Riverside County jury. A
judge sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of
parole.
The Human Rights Watch video, in which she is seen
expressing remorse for the crime and describing her grim life as
a prostitute, drew widespread attention to her case.
The year after the video was released, then-California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger commuted her prison sentence to
25 years to life, making her eligible to be considered for
parole.
Earlier this year, the California Board of Parole Hearings
found her suitable for release, sending their recommendation to
Brown, who notified the board on Monday that he would not
intervene to stop her from being released.
A spokesman for Brown said the governor would have no
comment on the matter.
Yee said it was Kruzan’s story that prompted him to author
his bill and fight for its passage.
“She has freely admitted the calculated way in which she
killed her pimp,” he said. “I think anybody in their right mind
would probably do the same. She did something that’s horrible
and she had to pay price. But she has turned her life around.”
California prisons spokesman Luis Patino said Kruzan would
likely be freed sometime within the next five days but that
details of her release would be kept secret for her safety and
that of the public.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and
Cynthia Osterman)
