Court Grants Parole to ‘Onion Field Killer’

The state Supreme Court opened the way Monday for one-time Death Row inmate Gregory Ulas Powell to be paroled from prison, more than two decades after he murdered a Los Angeles police officer in an onion field.

Justices voted 4 to 3 to overturn a 1982 decision by the state Board of Prison Terms that rescinded Powell’s 1983 parole date, which the board set in 1977.

Powell, now 52, could be freed within 30 days, once the high court’s ruling becomes final. However, state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp said Monday that he will ask the court to reconsider its ruling.

With the infamy of Powell’s crime--chronicled by author Joseph Wambaugh in the book “The Onion Field” and in the movie of the same name--reaction to the ruling was swift.

“I’m absolutely shocked,” said Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, “ . . . that a man who was twice sentenced to the gas chamber for the coldblooded killing of a police officer should be ordered released, under any circumstances.”

“He doesn’t belong on the street,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said. “He belongs where he is right now and that’s behind bars for the rest of his life. . . .”

Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin, acting in their final week on the court, voted to allow Powell’s release. They were joined by Justice Allen Broussard, who wrote the majority opinion overturning an appellate court decision.

If the court agrees to rehear the case, Powell’s off-and-on release again would be on hold. And there is at least a chance that the court will rehear the case--if Bird, Grodin and Reynoso are replaced quickly by either permanent or temporary justices.

90 Days to Act

The court must act on a request for rehearing within 90 days. Dissenting Justices Stanley Mosk and Edward Panelli and Chief Justice-designate Malcolm Lucas would most likely vote to reconsider Monday’s ruling. A fourth voted would be needed to rehear the case.

While Gov. George Deukmejian is not expected to name replacements for Bird, Grodin and Reynoso in time to hear a new appeal on the Powell matter, Lucas could be confirmed as early as next month as chief justice. He could then appoint temporary justices who could vote to rehear the case.

In its decision Monday, the four-justice majority concluded that the Board of Prison Terms had no basis for rescinding its earlier decision.

“While reasonable minds might differ as to whether Powell should have been granted a parole date in 1977, it was clearly within the power of the (board) to grant him the date, and there was no fundamental error in the (board) decision,” Broussard wrote. “The decision to grant the date was valid and final. Powell was thus possessed of the valuable but limited right to be free.”

In the dissent, Mosk simply reprinted portions of a Court of Appeal ruling in Powell’s case, saying the 1982 board was within its rights in rescinding Powell’s release.

Powell and crime partner Jimmie Lee Smith were sentenced to death for the kidnaping and murder of Officer Ian Campbell in a field outside of Bakersfield on March 9, 1963, after disarming him and his partner, Officer Karl Hettinger.

Hettinger, who is retired, told a Los Angeles television station late Monday, “They should have been executed. They executed my friend and my partner.”

Smith was paroled in 1982 but jailed again in 1984 for a parole violation. He was paroled again on Nov. 13, 1986, in the Los Angeles area, according to the Department of Corrections.

The high court first overturned Powell’s death sentence in 1969 in an opinion by Mosk. Powell was resentenced to death, but that too was thrown out in 1972, and his sentence was reduced to life in prison. That led to the series of hearings before the Board of Prison Terms.

Responding to calls by Deukmejian, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and others that Powell remain behind bars, the parole board in 1982 took the unusual step of reconsidering Powell’s release--and overruling the 1977 decision. The 1982 board cited, among other things, escape attempts by Powell that were not considered by the earlier panel.

Powell’s attorney appealed that decision to a Superior Court judge, who concluded that the board overstepped its authority by overturning the 1977 decision. The Supreme Court affirmed that Superior Court order.

“It’s a straightforward affirmance of the lower court order,” Dennis Riordan, Powell’s lawyer, said. “Although it is a high-visibility case, it is a wholly unextraordinary legal decision.”

The court, citing Powell’s statements at his parole hearings, acknowledged the escape attempts, but noted that they occurred while he was facing a death sentence in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

However, once his death sentence was overturned permanently in 1972, the court said, “Powell became not merely a law-abiding prisoner but an exemplary one.”