CA bill would allow inmates sentenced to life without parole to seek early release if crime was before age 26
The California Senate approved a measure Tuesday that would allow inmates sentenced to life without parole the opportunity to request an early release if their crimes were committed before the age of 26.
Senate Bill 672, the Youth Rehabilitation and Opportunity Act, passed the Senate by a 24-11 party-line vote. The proposal now heads to the Assembly.
The bill, introduced by Democratic Sen. Susan Rubio, was amended to exclude criminals convicted of certain offenses the chance to seek parole, including those who killed a law enforcement officer or carried out a mass shooting at a school, among other offenses.
Republicans criticized their Democratic colleagues for passing the bill, saying the "soft-on-crime" proposal helps criminals and ignores victims.
Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones said Democrats "just opened the prison gates for over 1,600 cold-blooded killers."
"Democrat lawmakers across the aisle have proven time and time again they don't care about the victim or their family," he said in a statement. "They don't care about keeping the public safe. They care about defending killers."
"This bill isn't about second chances for petty offenders. It grants opportunity for release to some of the most violent criminals," Sen. Kelly Seyarto said. "These individuals were sentenced to life without parole for crimes so extreme that the justice system deemed them beyond rehabilitation. Instead of weakening our justice system, we should be focusing on strengthening public safety and protecting Californians."
Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil said the people who committed these "depraved" crimes have "earned their sentence," and it is "simply wrong for Democrat legislators to think they know better than the judges and juries who heard these cases."
"We're not talking about children who committed a 'youthful indiscretion'; these are adults who committed planned murders with special circumstances," she said. "We say kill this bill, not free these killers."
In a post on X, State Assembly Republican Caucus press secretary George Andrews labeled the legislation a "get-out-of-prison plan" for people convicted of murder before age 26.
Crime Victims United, in a letter to Rubio, wrote that the bill "threatens public safety and ignores the rights of crime victims and their families, as well as the efforts of local law enforcement, district attorneys, jurors, and the legal processes and resources that resulted in their conviction and sentence."
The bill notes that existing law states that victims' rights at a parole hearing will not be changed with this proposal.
Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, a Republican, has vowed to attempt to kill the bill when it reaches the Assembly.
"This is what happens when soft-on-crime activists make the rules," Gallagher told Fox News Digital. "They're bending over backwards to help murderers while families are still grieving. These aren't kids. They're violent adults who earned life without parole. We're going to kill this bill in the Assembly and make sure California doesn't become a sanctuary for violent offenders."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the offices of Rubio and Democratic co-authors Josh Becker, María Elena Durazo, Caroline Menjivar and Sasha Renée Pérez for comment.
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