California court rules quadriplegic rapist still a threat

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

SACRAMENTO -- A rapist who was paralyzed from the neck down in a prison stabbing may still be dangerous and can be kept behind bars under a state law that allows the release of some permanently disabled inmates, a state appeals court ruled April 6.

Although Steven Martinez is no longer capable of assaulting anyone, his past crimes and later verbal abuse of prison nurses show he is "an evil, angry and violent person" who might enlist others to commit attacks after release, said the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento.

"Quadriplegics ... are capable of committing violent crimes," the court said in a 2-1 ruling, citing a 1987 case in which a man in a wheelchair reportedly killed his bride by firing a pistol using a string in his mouth.

The dissenting justice, Richard Sims, said the majority relied on "utter speculation" and undermined the 2008 law that allowed permanently incapacitated inmates to win release if they no longer pose a threat. The state spent $1.25 million caring for Martinez over a two-year period while his family was prepared to assume the cost at home, Sims said.

Martinez, now 41, was sentenced to 157 years to life in prison for driving his car into two women outside a San Diego nightclub in March 1998, then taking one of the women to a secluded area and raping her.

In February 2001, while at a prison in Imperial County, Martinez was stabbed in the neck by another inmate, cutting his spinal cord. He is diabetic and incontinent, has trouble breathing and will need 24-hour care for life, according to medical testimony quoted by the court.

Martinez sued for release in 2008 after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill he had previously vetoed that extended the state's "compassionate release" program from terminally ill prisoners to those who have become permanently incapacitated, are eligible for parole and pose no public danger.

The warden at Corcoran State Prison, where Martinez is now held, recommended his release, but the state prison director and the parole board disagreed, saying Martinez should be punished for his crimes and had behaved poorly in prison. The appeals court majority upheld the board's decision, overruling a Sacramento judge who had ordered the inmate's release.

Martinez's lawyer, Ken Karan, said the inmate's reported threats to nurses stemmed from frustration at his immobility and did not reflect danger. He said he hasn't spoken with Martinez yet about a possible appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The ruling in Martinez vs. Board of Parole Hearings can be viewed at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/C061031.PDF.