The Supreme Court today ruled Governor Gavin Newsom can pardon Walter Earlonne Woods. A court recommendation is constitutionally required before a governor can grant clemency to anyone who has been “twice convicted of a felony.”
Woods was convicted of residential burglary and kidnapping in 1989. In 1999, he was convicted of attempted second degree robbery and assault with a firearm. In 2018, the court granted then-Governor Jerry Brown’s request to commute Woods’s 31-years-to-life sentence. (See here.) Woods was released from prison after the commutation.
Besides being a convicted felon, Woods is the co-host, co-producer, and co-creator of “Ear Hustle,” a podcast about prison life that was one of three finalists for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting.
Also, Woods in 2021 endorsed Justice Goodwin Liu’s bid to be named California Attorney General by Governor Newsom. (The nomination later went to Rob Bonta.) At the time, Woods said, “I met Justice Liu in 2017 in the media center at San Quentin where I was incarcerated.”
Justice Liu was not recused, but Justice Joshua Groban was, likely because Groban was a senior advisor to Governor Brown when Brown asked the court for permission to commute Woods’s sentence. [Update at 5:40 p.m.: The just-published conference results list states that both Justices Liu and Groban were recused.]
The court has said it reviews clemency recommendation requests under a deferential standard. (See here and here.) And Newsom has a nearly perfect record — he withdrew one request before a ruling, but the court has approved all 64 of his other requests, not counting the six that are still pending (see here and here). That’s better than former Governor Jerry Brown, who had the court without explanation block 10 intended clemency grants. The denial of a request implies that a clemency grant would be an abuse of power.
The Woods recommendation request was pending for almost three months.