Supreme Court Approves Governor’s Request To Commute Robbery Sentence

03/30/2021--The Supreme Court today recommended that Governor Gavin Newsom commute Benjamin Guerra‘s 2006, 24-year sentence for robbery with a firearm enhancement. It’s been 10 months since Governor Gavin Newsom requested the recommendation, which is a constitutional prerequisite to the clemency grant because Guerra has been “twice convicted of a felony.” Newsom said he was “contemplating” that the commutation will “make Mr. Guerra eligible for an earlier parole suitability hearing.” Newsom is now 16 for 16 in having the court approve his pardons and sentence commutations, which is considerably better than former Governor Jerry Brown, who had the court block 10 intended clemency grants. There are now 19 clemency recommendation requests pending before the court. The oldest two were submitted in May 2020 (at the same time as Guerra’s), the most recent seven just two weeks ago.