On June 25, 2020, RBGG’s client Demetrie Mayfield was released from California State Prison, Los Angeles County on parole after nearly 37 years in custody, nearly 20 of which were on San Quentin’s Death Row. Sanford Jay Rosen and his colleague at the time, Andrea Asaro, represented Mayfield on his appeal to the California Supreme Court, and at his habeas corpus evidentiary hearing at which we proved that Demetrie was the victim of racism within the criminal justice system. For more information see the Daily Journal op-ed on March 3, 2020: Rosen in the DJ: Ninth Circuit Was Right to Overturn Conviction Based on Defense Attorney’s Racially Driven Conflict We then were instrumental in getting his sentence reduced by the 9th Circuit to Life Without the Possibility of Parole.
In 2018, Rosen was joined by RBGG’s Tom Nolan and Natalie Welch in presenting Demetrie’s clemency application to Governor Jerry Brown. On the day before Christmas 2018, Governor Brown granted Demetrie clemency making him eligible for parole. See Mayfield Commutation Certificate. We then represented him at his first parole hearing, at which the Parole Commissioners granted him parole. On June 12, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation notified us that the Governor was taking no further action on the case, which meant that the Parole Commissioners’ decision was final and Demetrie would be paroled. The Board of Parole notified us on June 18th and Demetrie was released seven days later. After missteps by CDCR about his transportation from the prison, he was picked up by his brother who drove him to his transitional housing where Demetrie will live for the next six months. The reunion was joyful. We will continue to represent him while he is on parole and likely after that.