By The Vanguard Staff
LOS ANGELES, CA – A man who was sentenced to death for a 1985 double murder was resentenced this week to life in prison without the possibility of parole after it was determined the defendant is ineligible for the death penalty because of an intellectual disability, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney.
Stanley Bernard Davis, 59, was convicted in the 1985 murder of students Michelle Boyd, 18, and Brian Harris, 20, after a carjacking. A jury found him guilty in 1989, and gave Davis the death penalty.
“The death penalty has been shown to not deter crime, has a history of racial bias and is fiscally irresponsible,” District Attorney George Gascón said. “The death sentence imposed against this intellectually disabled person over 30 years ago has been corrected with a sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”
Citing “more than 30 years of costly litigation,” prosecutors agreed that a claim of intellectual disability was legitimate and Davis could be resentenced to life without the possibility of parole in the interest of justice.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has been in contact with the families of the victims and are providing any and all services as we ensure justice is served in this case.
Davis appealed his conviction in 1989 and filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in 2003 seeking relief from the sentence of death. The petition included over 217 exhibits documenting evidence of meeting the legal criteria of intellectual disability and therefore making him ineligible for capital punishment.
