Defense Builds Case for Reyes Pardon

Although he has never granted a pardon to an imprisoned battered woman, Edna Reyes’ attorney is feverishly gathering documents to petition Gov. Pete Wilson to free the 29-year-old mother of four from serving her six-year prison term.

While Reyes prepares to go to prison for shooting and killing her husband in front of two police officers, defense attorney Jean Farley is hoping to convince Wilson that Reyes deserves to be released for the sake of her children.

“What we need to do is convince the governor that he may be in a position to have an effect on domestic violence,” Farley said.

But out of the 34 petitions he received in 1992 from imprisoned battered women who killed their abusers, he has only granted two clemencies. He has never granted a pardon for a battered woman, according to Sean Walsh, Wilson’s spokesman.

The governor considers clemency and pardon reviews one of the most serious tasks as chief executive, Walsh said.

“The success rate for those who have petitioned is not great,” Walsh said. “This is because he thoroughly goes through every facet of the case, judges whether a crime was committed and looks at the circumstances of the crime to see if any leniency is required.”

The battle to release Reyes will be difficult, said Minouche Kandel of the Support Network for Battered Women, who has filed petitions on behalf of some of the 34 women.

“It is harder to receive a pardon,” Kandel said. “Unfortunately [her chances] are slim to none.”

Reyes was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday for killing her husband, Martin Reyes, in Oxnard nearly two months ago.

Originally charged with murder, prosecutors reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter after considering the long history of abuse she had suffered at the hands of her husband.

Martin Reyes had been accused of beating his wife throughout the couple’s 12-year marriage and was sent to jail in 1989 for abusing his wife and children. Edna Reyes said her husband threatened to cut her throat, had kicked her and the children repeatedly and constantly verbally abused her.

In 1993, Edna Reyes obtained a restraining order against her husband. That order had expired without her knowledge a few weeks before he came to her home on the night he died.

Farley said she intends to send the petition to Wilson by the end of next week. She has been gathering medical, probation and police records as well as information from family and friends regarding the couple’s relationship.

Farley said she will refer to last week’s California Supreme Court decision that instructed judges to allow juries to consider expert testimony about battered women’s syndrome in deciding whether to acquit a woman who killed a spouse or partner. Edna Reyes, Farley said, not only suffers from battered women’s syndrome, but also post traumatic stress disorder.

Wilson granted clemency in 1994 to Brenda Denise Aris based on his belief that she suffered from battered women’s syndrome when she pumped five bullets into her husband as he slept.

In his decision, Wilson said Aris’ husband, Rick, was “chronically guilty of the most extraordinary cruelty.” Aris was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to 15 years to life. Wilson commuted her sentence to 12 years to life.

The other woman, Frances Mary Caccavale, was an aging 78-year-old grandmother who stabbed her husband to death after being married for nearly half a century.

Kandel, who wrote a brief for the state Supreme Court’s Humphrey decision on behalf of the California Alliance Against Domestic Violence, said Wilson is more hesitant to use his executive clemency power than other governors.

She cited Massachusetts Gov. William Weld), a Republican, as an example of a governor who has moved quickly in granting clemency to battered women. Of the eight petitions he received in 1992, he has given clemency to seven.

“It has been a remarkable difference,” Kandel said. “This is not a partisan issue. It has more to do with a governor thinking this is an important enough issue to take a stand.”

But Walsh said Wilson’s office makes no apologies.

“In all of these instances, people have been killed, and the governor is not going to treat death lightly,” Walsh said.

Since Edna Reyes is undocumented, she will be deported even if she is granted a pardon, Walsh said.

Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, who has been active in battered women’s issues, said that governors in general are more susceptible to public opinion and are hesitant to act in cases that are not clear cut.

“There is a widespread belief that these cases do not fall neatly into a notion of self-defense,” Kuehl said. “I don’t think there is a widespread understanding of these cases among the public. There is not a great deal of sensitivity at the executive level in most states. I wish there were.”