Parents Protest Denial of Son’s Parole

Speaking out tearfully, the parents of convicted murderer Robert Rosenkrantz on Tuesday denounced Gov. Gray Davis’ decision to block their son’s parole and urged his immediate release.

“You need to distinguish, governor, between people who are dangerous and people like my son . . . who have paid their debt to society,” said Herbert Rosenkrantz, appearing with his wife, Barbara, at a news conference in front of Van Nuys Superior Court.

The comments came shortly before a judge rebuffed another attempt to free Rosenkrantz, whose parole Davis opposed last month, for the second time. Both outgoing Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, and Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who beat Garcetti in last week’s elections and will succeed him in office, oppose his parole.

Advocates have made Rosenkrantz’s case a test of Davis’ hard-line stance against granting parole to murderers. Since taking office, Davis has allowed the parole of only one convicted killer among the 33 cases he has reviewed.

Robert Rosenkrantz was 18 in 1985, when he killed Steven Redman, a 17-year-old Calabasas schoolmate. Redman had told the Rosenkrantzes their son was a homosexual.

A week later, armed with an Uzi semiautomatic rifle he had bought, Rosenkrantz waited six hours outside Redman’s home, confronted the youth and demanded he take back what he had said. When Redman refused, Rosenkrantz shot him 10 times.

During Rosenkrantz’s murder trial, witnesses testified that the youth said he planned to kill Redman, and had practiced shooting with a rented gun before buying the Uzi. Rosenkrantz testified that he was despondent after being outed and shot Redman in anger.

Rosenkrantz fled Calabasas and was a fugitive for a nearly month before turning himself in. A Van Nuys jury in 1986 convicted Rosenkrantz of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 17 years to life in prison.

In his 15 years in prison, Rosenkrantz has been a model prisoner who earned a bachelor’s degree. He has expressed remorse for the killing, and prison psychiatrists have described his potential for future violence as “well below average.”

Robert Rosenkrantz is ready to reenter society as a productive, law-abiding citizen, his father said, adding that his son even has job offers waiting for him--including one from an Encino insurance adjuster.

“Fifteen years ago Robert did the most horrible thing you can imagine. But 15 years have gone by and Robert’s a different person today,” Herbert Rosenkrantz said. He denounced the governor for having a “political agenda” in denying his son’s release.

He called Redman “a troubled boy we helped take care of.”

“He was a mixed-up kid and so was my son,” Herbert Rosenkrantz said, adding that his son has been remorseful and fully rehabilitated.

Directly addressing her son through the media, Barbara Rosenkrantz said: “Please don’t give up. Hold on to the goodness of life, as you have for the last 15 years.”

On Tuesday, Robert Rosenkrantz also filed an amended lawsuit in Van Nuys Superior Court, alleging that Davis’ Oct. 28 denial of parole was unconstitutional. His attorney, Rowan Klein, said the governor has “set up criteria [for parole] that’s in violation of the law.”

But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz declined to consider the request, part of an overall challenge to the parole board’s denial of the release, first filed in 1998.

Citing an order by a court of appeal, Stoltz suggested in a written statement that Rosenkrantz take his case to an appellate judge.

Davis’ spokeswoman, Hilary McLean, said the governor acted “lawfully and properly” in blocking Rosenkrantz’s release. In a written decision, Davis said he believed that “Mr. Rosenkrantz has not served sufficient time in prison for this very serious crime.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond, who prosecuted Rosenkrantz, said the Rosenkrantzes’ latest legal action, which follows two years of tug-of-wars that involved two state courts, is without merit.

“Any reasonable person familiar with the facts of the case would agree with the governor’s conclusion,” he said.

In 1996, a three-member panel of the Board of Prison Terms found Rosenkrantz, by all accounts a model inmate, suitable for parole. But the determination was reversed by the full board after an internal review. Rosenkrantz filed a lawsuit challenging the board’s actions in 1998, and Stoltz in 1999 ordered the board to find him suitable for release. Faced with the threat of being cited for contempt, the board granted parole, which Davis then blocked.

An appellate court affirmed Stoltz’s decision earlier this year, and Stoltz later ordered Rosenkrantz’s immediate release. But appeals judges blocked the release, after the state attorney general’s office, representing Davis, intervened.