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Friday 24 June 2016

The Story Of Sarah Kruza: Woman Locked Up As A Teen And Sentenced To Life In Prison After Killing Her Abusive Pimp; Freed After Serving 19-Years (Video)

Sara Kruzan, pictured in July, will be freed from jail after a ruling from a Californian state parole boardLooking back: Sara pictured as a teenager
A woman who was sentenced to life in prison as a teenager for killing her former pimp has been released under a new California law that allows for the re-sentencing of certain inmates convicted as juveniles.
Sara Kruzan was paroled Thursday from Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla after serving 19 years.
Kruzan was just 17 when she was told she would die in prison for the 1994 shooting of George Gilbert Howard in a Riverside motel room.

She said Howard sexually assaulted her at an early age and she began working for him as a prostitute at 13.
Prosecutors said Kruzan was no longer working for Howard when she killed him.
In January, a Riverside County judge reduced Kruzan's conviction to second-degree murder, making her immediately eligible for parole.
The decision to free her was taken last Friday after Californian Governor Jerry Brown decided not to contest a state parole board decision to let her leave jail.
Kruzan pictured 

Prisoner: Earlier pictures show Sara Kruzan during her time in prison
Her case became a high-profile example used by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who sought to soften harsh life sentences for juveniles.
'It is justice long overdue,' Yee told the Los Angeles Times. 
He called Kruzan's case the 'perfect example of adults who failed her, of society failing her. 
'You had a predator who stalked her, raped her, forced her into prostitution, and there was no one around.'
Kruzan's case garnered widespread publicity in 2010 after Human Rights Watch posted a six-minute interview with her on YouTube.

That year culminated with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger commuting her sentence to 25-years-to-life with the possibility of parole on his last full day in office. 
Schwarzenegger said he still considered her guilty of first-degree murder, but he sympathized with her defense that the man she killed had sexually abused her and served as her pimp for years.
'Given Ms. Kruzan's age at the time of the murder, and considering the significant abuse she suffered at his hands, I believe Ms. Kruzan's sentence is excessive,' the governor wrote in his commutation message. 
'It is apparent that Ms. Kruzan suffered significant abuse starting at a vulnerable age.'
In January, a Riverside judge further reduced her first-degree murder conviction to second degree, making her immediately eligible for release.
Yee's legislation to allow new sentencing hearings for juveniles sent to prison for life without parole became law in January. 
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Kruzan pictured with her aunt Ann Rogen who asked why it had taken the Californian governor so long to make his decision
Approved: Governor Jerry Brown has decided to allow freedom to a woman who received a life sentence when she was a teen for killing her former pimp
Approved: Governor Jerry Brown has decided to allow freedom to a woman who received a life sentence when she was a teen for killing her former pimp

In September, Brown signed a second bill requiring parole boards to give special consideration to juveniles tried as adults who have served at least 15 years of lengthy sentences. 
Advocates estimate that there are more than 1,000 prisoners already eligible for parole hearings under that new law.
Brown's decision on Kruzan's case came nearly two weeks before the deadline for his action.
Kruzan was housed at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla.
Her aunt told the Associated Press she wasn't surprised by the governor's action.
'I just wondered why it took so long,' Ann Rogen of Riverside said.

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