Polly Klaas’ killer wants to overturn his death sentence in the notorious 1993 case — and her father is furious.
Richard Allen Davis was sentenced to death for abducting and then murdering 12-year-old Polly, snatching her from a sleepover at knifepoint and strangling her to death. Her body was found two months later.
Davis asked the California Superior Court last month to recall his 1996 death sentence under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 decision to halt the death penalty in the Golden State, Fox News reported Saturday.
“On Aug. 5, 1996, Richard Allen Davis was sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering my 12-year-old daughter Polly Klaas, with the intent to commit lewd acts upon her,” Polly’s father, Marc Klaas, said in a statement this week.
“At 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 1, 1993, Davis invaded a slumber party at the home Polly shared with her mother in Petaluma, California, where he bound, tied, and blindfolded Polly’s two friends before kidnapping her at knifepoint.”
Davis “murdered Polly and discarded her body on top of a trash pile within hours of abducting her,” Marc Klaas wrote.
“We had every expectation that the sentence of death recommended by the jury and imposed by Judge Thomas Hastings would keep him segregated from society for the rest of his life. We could not have been more wrong!” Marc Klaas added.
The local district attorney has opposed Davis’ request, which Klaas applauded.
“The Sonoma County District Attorney’s opposition to recall of Davis’s capital sentence… is correct that a recall of a capital sentence is not authorized under the section, and the court should deny his motion,” he wrote.
A judge will rule on Davis’ sentence next month.
“If my family can be subjected to the possible recall of capital sentence of a condemned murderer who, prior to murdering Polly, had multiple convictions for violence towards women and was diagnosed as a sexually sadistic psychopath, then any victim’s family who thought that justice was served in the courtroom is in for a shocking new reality,” Marc said in his statement. “If Polly’s killer is somehow able to prevail, this is the tip of the iceberg.”
He added that “[t]housands of violent offenders will follow suit, so lock your doors, protect your children, and pray that your family does not fall prey to the violence and destruction that is sure to follow.”
Newsom’s office has directed reporters to comments the governor made when he issued the moratorium in March 2019, when 737 people were on death row in California.
“The intentional killing of another person is wrong and, as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual,” Newsom said in a statement at the time. “Our death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure.
“It has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown or can’t afford expensive legal representation. It has provided no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Most of all, the death penalty is absolute. It’s irreversible and irreparable in the event of human error.”
Polly’s disappearance caused a media sensation at a time when the Internet was in its infancy.
