Parole board members feel pressure
Those asked to resign deny that they're soft on crime
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/09/2007 01:31:50 AM PDT


"In 1981, my father and stepmother were murdered," Bilenda Harris-Ritter said matter-of-factly. She took a break from work, and was sitting in the noisy lobby of a Sacramento office building.

"It was an extraordinarily horrific thing to go through for my family, and we will never truly be over it," she said.

That's why she was shocked to be labeled soft on criminals in California.

Harris-Ritter said she feels she is a casualty in a battle over parole that this year is playing out in the state's courts.

Read more: http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_7124743

Second chance for young lifer
New sentence cuts man's term; he has modest plans after getting out
By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/09/2007 01:38:53 AM PDT


It's lunchtime inside the Monterey County Jail. But Anthony Holguin, wearing a striped jumpsuit and plastic slippers, would rather talk than eat.

Anthony is one of very few California lifers who will actually leave prison. How he will fare is anyone's guess, though studies show that lifers mostly tend to stay out of trouble when released.

He isn't getting out because he received parole. Instead, Anthony was Monterey County's first teenager to face life under Proposition 21, the law that allows youths to be sentenced as adults, and that fact eventually drew the attention of some prominent Bay Area lawyers.

Their successful court petition came several years after Anthony was convicted and sent to adult prison for life.

Read more: http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_7124888