Inmate Lauded, Parole Doubtful

More than 1,000 Californians want Jerilyn Becker freed from prison. Among them is the man who put her there.

Retired Marin County Superior Court Judge E. Warren McGuire calls Becker, who has served 22 years for a killing over a drug deal, “the most successfully rehabilitated prisoner I’ve ever come across.”

But the opinion that counts belongs to Gov. Gray Davis.

In his first term, Davis has agreed to free only two murderers deemed ready for release by his appointees on the state parole board, rejecting 141 others. With less than three weeks to go until election day, few analysts expect the governor to soften up now.

“The politically safe thing for him to do is to deny parole,” said Darry Sragow, a Democratic campaign consultant. “If you just say no, nothing bad happens. Her timing is not real good.”

Davis must decide Becker’s fate today, and his office has been flooded with letters and petitions asking him to free her.

Aside from her sentencing judge, she has support from Catholic nuns, college professors, homemakers, retired bankers, 14 state legislators and many others offering her jobs, money and shelter once she’s freed. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a full-page editorial praising her transformation and urging parole.

Becker’s advocates say two main factors drew them to her cause: the fact that she did not fire the bullet that killed the victim, Rickey Caponio, and her record of helping others while behind bars.

“The amount of good Jeri has done in the prison environment is just extraordinary,” said Arlene Goetze, director of Catholic Women’s Network, a nonprofit educational group. “I think that’s what touches most of us.”

There are those, however, who express a contrary view. At Becker’s parole hearing in May, a Marin County prosecutor argued that the inmate remains “extremely dangerous,” saying she threatened the life of a witness during her 1980 crime.

And Caponio’s siblings say Becker should serve more time to atone for the killing. The murder, they say, inflicted enduring trauma on Caponio’s young son, who ran for help as his father was being shot.

In an interview, one of Caponio’s sisters said she is astonished and angered by the portrayal of Becker, in news accounts and at her parole hearing, as a reformed, remorseful woman who “only” killed a drug dealer.

“It’s as if they’re saying, ‘Oh, he was dealing, so he deserved it,’ ” Ann Tramutola said. “It’s extremely upsetting and offensive.”

Tramutola added that while Becker’s supporters take comfort in the fact that she did not fire the fatal gunshot, Becker was in fact convicted of first-degree murder after being portrayed at trial as the mastermind of the crime.

“She was the instigator,” Tramutola said. As for Becker’s accomplishments behind bars, she added: “Aren’t people supposed to behave in prison? Isn’t that what we expect? I just think she’s manipulating all these people rallying around her.”

A spokesman for the governor said Davis would consider input from all sides in deciding Becker’s future, as well as the circumstances of the crime and her conduct behind bars.

While acknowledging the voluminous support for Becker, the spokesman, Byron Tucker, called the murder “a brutal crime.”

“Gov. Davis will try to strike a balance in making a decision,” Tucker said. “But he’s cognizant of the fact that the victim cannot speak out from beyond the grave to let his wishes be known.”

Paroles are parceled out by the nine-member Board of Prison Terms, appointed by the governor. Each year the board holds about 3,100 hearings for murderers, rapists and kidnappers whose sentences make them eligible for parole. (A much smaller number of inmates convicted of more heinous killings are ineligible for release or awaiting execution.)

Board members grant or deny parole after evaluating the severity of the crime, the inmate’s behavior while incarcerated and other factors. The law suggests that parole be granted unless the prisoner remains dangerous, but the board’s discretion is broad and parole grants are rare.

In California -- and only two other states -- the governor has the right to reject or approve grants of parole. Shortly after taking office, Davis seemed to indicate that he had no intention of letting any murderers go free, saying in an interview, “If you take someone else’s life, forget it.”

His aides insist that the statement was political hyperbole. But critics say the governor has pursued a blanket policy against parole. One case involving an inmate from Calabasas, Robert Rosenkrantz, who was denied parole by Davis, was recently heard by the state Supreme Court. A decision is expected within 60 days.

Becker is the latest high-profile convict to land before Davis for review. Her crime took place March 4, 1980, on Caponio’s small houseboat in Sausalito, a transcript from her parole hearing shows. Becker, a heroin addict, had paid Caponio $60 for a fix, and -- after being put off for a day -- returned, angry and addled by the effects of withdrawal, to collect the drugs with another addict, Bruce Cerny.

Once on the houseboat, the two demanded the drugs and a fight broke out as Caponio’s son ran for help, the transcript says. After a scuffle over the gun, Cerny shot Caponio in the chest, then turned the gun on Caponio’s girlfriend, intending to kill her to eliminate witnesses. Becker convinced him to put the gun away, but later threatened to kill the girlfriend if she snitched, according to trial testimony, which Becker disputes.

Both were arrested at the scene, convicted of murder and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Becker, a middle-class kid from Milwaukee who got hooked on heroin when she moved to San Francisco as a teenager, was 29.

Becker is 52 now, and her supporters say she has undergone a metamorphosis over more than two decades at the California Institution for Women in Corona, making her a model of what the penal system ought to produce.

She has served as a peer counselor and reading tutor for other inmates; led drug and alcohol recovery groups; ministered to dying prisoners; coordinated outreach programs for schoolchildren; and helped raise $6,000 from other inmates for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

She has one disciplinary citation -- in 1994, for picking dandelions out of bounds -- and her work supervisors give her excellent reviews.

The prison psychiatrist who most recently evaluated her, Dr. Robert McDaniel, said Becker has “a great deal of insight, remorse and empathy regarding her crime” and would not pose a danger if released.

All of this was laid out at Becker’s three-hour parole hearing in May. So, too, were the objections by the victim’s relatives and the Marin district attorney. Prosecutor Barry Borden said that while Becker’s clean record was “commendable,” it “in no way outweighs the callousness of this crime.”

Becker agreed that, 22 years ago, she was “a raging, maniac addict” and a danger to others.

“Due to my severe addiction and my failure to admit to it at the time, I cost Rickey Caponio his life. I cost Rickey Jr. his father,” she told the parole panel. “I can’t give that back, and I don’t minimize what was taken.”

“I can only express my sincerity to you today, to continue to do good,” she said. “And never again to harm or hurt another human being.”

The panel concluded that Becker was suitable for parole and would not pose a risk to public safety if released.

In granting a parole recommendation, Chairwoman Sharon Lawin cited Becker’s “positive institutional behavior,” the psychiatric appraisal and her “maturation, growth and greater understanding.”

“I wish you good luck,” Lawin said.

“Thank you.... I’m so grateful,” Becker replied.