Sara Kruzan, 34, has been in prison for half of her entire life.
Sara is the victim, but she's in prison. She was raised in a
dysfunctional family, her mother was a crack addict and her father a
frequent prison inmate. Sara was groomed by a pimp, G.G., for sexual
exploitation from age 11 and then he raped at age 13. G.G. put Sara on the
streets to work for him as a teen-age prostitute. When she was 16,
Sara shot and killed G.G. in a Riverside, California motel. Another
pimp had given her the pistol and told Sara to kill G.G. or he would kill Sara's mother, but he denied
that, of course, when Sara was arrested. Sara was evaluated by the
California Youth Authority and determined to be treatable. However,
Sara was tried as an adult although she was still a juvenile. She was
sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. LWOP.
Such a unimaginably harsh sentence for a victim of sexual exploitation.
What were the DA and the Judge thinking? Sara's sentence was commuted
to 25 years to life by Governor Schwarzenegger on his last day in
office, but even with that, Sara would not even be eligible for parole
for another eight years. The CA State Supreme Court has reviewed her
case and remanded it to the Riverside County Superior Court for a
hearing on why she should not get relief. Sara has been a model
prisoner and she has earned an Associate's Degree while in prison.
Sara's fate is literally in the hands of the Attorney General of
California, Kamala Harris who will decide if Sara will be released or if
she will face another trial. This time an intimate partner
battering defense could be used, a defense which was not allowed in her original trial. But why should Sara have to face a retrial? She has
already served more than enough time. 17 years is long enough.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, is served by keeping Sara in prison even one
more day. Not justice, not society, not logic. Nothing.
Please write to Attorney General Kamala Harris, CA Dept.
of Justice, PO Box 944255, Sacramento, CA 94224-2550 and ask her to
release Sara. Tell AG Harris that you fully support the release of this
young woman to lead a full and productive life in society. You can
read about the latest in Sara's case by clicking on this link.
http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/riverside/riverside-headlines-index/20120622-riverside-state-concedes-battered-victim-issue-in-kruzan-case.ece?ssimg=623849#ssStory623852
We've been collecting signatures on postcards to send to AG
Harris. A number of people ask me in what country Sara is imprisoned.
Most people cannot imagine that this travesty of justice is occurring
right here in California, in the USA. Almost everybody who takes the
time to read the poster describing Sara's case and imprisonment stop and
gladly sign a postcard to the AG.
Last Sunday, over
150 people signed Free Sara Kruzan postcards on Valencia St. in San Francisco's Mission District. The
street was closed to vehicular traffic as part of "Sunday Streets".
Thousands of people were out enjoying the freedom of not worrying about
traffic and enjoying the activities along the street from Duboce to 24th
St.
 |
| Collecting
signatures on postcards to AG Kamala Harris on Valencia St. We ran out
of the B&W cards I'd had printed so I had to run over to Mission
St. and buy 100 colorful San Francisco scenic postcards. Then we ran
out of those as well. |
