State appeals court upholds ban on parole for 22-year-old Oakland murderer
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State appeals court upholds ban on parole for 22-year-old Oakland murderer, but said the Legislature should reconsider the law on parole eligibility in view of research on the rate of brain development.Fry Design / Getty Images
A man who was 22 when he murdered a cashier during a 2003 robbery in Oakland is ineligible for parole because he was over 18 at the time, a state appeals court has ruled, but it says the Legislature should reconsider the age limit in view of new research on youthful brain development.
In upholding Paul Murray’s life-without-parole sentence for fatally shooting Paul Bajwa, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said Monday that the state was legally entitled to sentence adults those over 18 more severely than juveniles, a distinction the U.S. Supreme Court drew when it outlawed death sentences for juveniles in 2005.