Court Blocks Parole of Rosenkrantz Until Appeal

An appeals court Friday stayed the parole of convicted murderer Robert Rosenkrantz, whose release had been ordered on grounds he did not receive a fair hearing from a parole board.

Justice Miriam Vogel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal stopped the release at 5 p.m. after the attorney general’s office sought an emergency stay, said Stephen Green, assistant secretary for the California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency.

“He will stay in jail until the court hears our appeal,” Green said.

Rosenkrantz had been expected to be released Friday evening if the request was turned down or if the court declined to take action, Green said.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz issued an order Thursday calling for Rosenkrantz’s immediate release because he “has not received a fair parole hearing and is not likely to at any time in the foreseeable future.”

If Stoltz’s ruling stands, Rosenkrantz would be the second murderer released on parole despite campaign promises from Gov. Gray Davis that no killer would be released on his watch.

The parole board voted in June to release Rosenkrantz in 2001 but never finalized the decision.

Stoltz’s order for release came after Rosenkrantz’s attorneys asked her to recalculate the 2001 release date.

Rosenkrantz was convicted of killing Steven Redman, 17, in 1985, one week after Redman clubbed him with a flashlight and broke his nose.

Redman told Rosenkrantz’s father of his son’s homosexuality. Rosenkrantz, then 18, was thrown out of his house.

Rosenkrantz was convicted of second-degree murder.

The same appellate court ruled in Rosenkrantz’s favor last year when the parole board was threatened with contempt of court. The state Supreme Court upheld that decision.