Senators Reject Gov.’s Parole Board Appointee

Lawmakers on Wednesday rejected one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appointees to the state parole board, adding to the controversy surrounding the panel that decides when California’s most serious offenders are rehabilitated and should go free.

After a string of witnesses questioned Terry Farmer’s performance as a parole commissioner -- and, previously, as chief counsel for the board -- the Senate Rules Committee voted 3 to 1 against his confirmation.

Republican Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield joined Democrats Don Perata of Oakland and Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles in rejecting the nominee. Sen. Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) voted for him.

At the same time, the committee endorsed two other Schwarzenegger appointees to the board -- Commissioners Archie Biggers and Philip Inglee -- and postponed for one week a vote on the governor’s nominee for chairwoman, Susan Fisher.

Perata said he planned to meet with the governor to discuss his “serious concerns” about the board -- which was reorganized along with the rest of the corrections department last year -- and Fisher’s role as its leader.

With 17 members, the Board of Parole Hearings evaluates inmates convicted of murder and other serious crimes whose sentences make them eligible for release. Commissioners are paid $99,693 annually.

In recent years, the board has been dogged by troubles, much of it related to a huge backlog of overdue cases.

In March, that backlog stood at 3,200 cases, meaning hundreds of prisoners have been waiting months -- even years, in some instances -- beyond the date they were legally entitled to a parole hearing.

As part of a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates, a judge recently scolded parole commissioners for employing inappropriate tactics to reduce the backlog. One such tactic, the judge said, involved making off-the-record deals that encouraged prisoners to forgo their hearings.

In one instance, a commissioner told an inmate’s lawyer that unless the prisoner waived his right to a hearing by stipulating that he was unsuitable for parole, he would be denied a new chance at release for several years.

Marin County Superior Court Judge Verna Adams, ruling last month, called the practice “illegal and certainly immoral” and ordered the state to stop it.

On Wednesday, legislators focused on other parole board issues as they considered Schwarzenegger’s nominees.

Perata, the Rules Committee chairman, expressed particular dismay that the governor had not listened to the panel’s plea last year for greater diversity in the professional backgrounds of appointees. Law enforcement, he said, remains disproportionately represented on the board -- 10 of 17 commissioners -- with no members from fields such as social work, the defense bar or the clergy.

Farmer was Humboldt County’s district attorney for 20 years before joining the parole board as its chief lawyer. Last July, he was named a commissioner by the governor, pending his Senate confirmation.

Lawmakers questioned him most sharply about the parole review of inmate Doreen Patrick. After a two-member hearing panel deadlocked on whether the convicted murderer should be freed, with one commissioner favoring parole and another recommending a one-year denial, the case was forwarded to the full board for review.

After a closed-door hearing, the full board came to a completely different conclusion -- denying her parole for at least four more years.

Patrick’s lawyer, Cheryl Montgomery, wrote to the board and asked for a rehearing. The board reconsidered the case and reduced the denial to one year.

Farmer acknowledged that the original four-year denial “could not be justified.”

“It seemed like the right decision at the time,” he said, “but you look back and realize it wasn’t a good idea.”

Farmer declined to comment after his nomination was rejected, but two prosecutors expressed disappointment, calling Farmer a fair, efficient commissioner.