[Pnews] Incarcerated Californians Express Cautious Optimism About New Clemency Proposal

[Prisoner News]

truthout.org
<https://truthout.org/articles/incarcerated-californians-express-cautious-optimism-about-new-clemency-proposal/>
Incarcerated Californians Express Cautious Optimism About New Clemency
Proposal
Victoria Law
December 25, 2025
------------------------------
[image: image.png]

An officer opens a dorm room for a prisoner inside C block at the Central
California Women's Facility on June 18, 2024, in Chowchilla, California.Gina
Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Tien Mo is still awaiting a response to her 2017 clemency application.
As previously
reported in *Truthout*
<https://truthout.org/articles/over-25000-people-in-prison-await-decisions-on-their-clemency-applications/>,
at age 20, she was sentenced to life without parole in her classmate’s
death. As the years pass, the 44-year-old’s hopes dwindle. Now, a proposed
statute gives her renewed optimism.

Clemency typically takes two forms — a pardon, which removes the
consequences of a criminal conviction such as possible deportation; or a
commutation, which reduces a prison sentence.

In March, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an additional avenue to
commutation
<https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-10/newsom-clemency-process-menendez-brothers#:~:text=Gov.%20Gavin%20Newsom%20on%20Monday,to%20have%20their%20sentences%20shortened.>.
The proposed rules
<https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/bph/wp-content/uploads/sites/161/2025/09/Consultations-and-CR-Regulations-Notice-for-Institution-Posting.pdf>
task the parole board with reviewing people six years before their first
parole date, conducting a commutation and resentencing (C&R) hearing that
may include victims’ families and the district attorney, and then issuing
recommendations to both the governor regarding clemency and to the courts
regarding resentencing. Currently, the board holds the power to recommend
incarcerated individuals for clemency and, upon the governor’s request,
investigate applicants. But, said Kelly Savage, the Drop LWOP (Life Without
Parole) <https://droplwop.com/> coordinator and a clemency recipient
<https://droplwop.com/kelly-savage-rodriguez/>, the board had stopped doing
these reviews in 1994.

During his nearly seven years in office, Newsom has granted 160
commutations.

“The proposed regulations provide the framework that will allow the Board
to exercise its authority under section 4812, as well as section 1172.1,”
Diana Crofts-Pelayo, the governor’s deputy director of communications,
wrote in an email to *Truthout*. The governor will retain the discretion to
grant executive clemency outside this process. During his nearly seven
years in office, Newsom has granted 160 commutations.

Crofts-Pelayo did not respond about the number of applications still
awaiting decision. The regulations need to be approved by the state’s
Office of Administrative Law, a process that can take months.

While the rules exclude those sentenced to death and those who have already
had parole hearings, it does not exclude those sentenced to life without
parole. “This change gives a lot of hope to ones who have been hopeless
such as myself,” Mo wrote in a prison e-message to *Truthout*. “I am no
longer that 18-year-old and I’ve worked hard to not be that person any
longer.” Mo has never had a disciplinary infraction during her 24 years in
state prison, no small feat given the many petty acts
<https://truthout.org/articles/efforts-to-decrease-prison-populations-are-leaving-women-behind/>
that often lead to sanctions.
[image: Tien Mo at Central California Women’s Facility in March 2025.]Tien
Mo at Central California Women’s Facility in March 2025.CCWF Paper Trail

Her sentence bars her from a parole hearing, but a C&R hearing would allow
her to show those changes.

She’s not the only one hopeful about this new avenue.

“This change gives a lot of hope to ones who have been hopeless such as
myself.”

Joseph Bell is the coordinating associate with Drop LWOP and a member of
the California Clemency Council. He knows the importance of clemency. In
1995, Bell, then 26, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without
parole. Behind bars, he co-founded programs to help others, particularly
19- to 25-year-olds, but thought he would never leave prison. Nearly 20
years into his sentence, a high school friend told him about commutation.
What Bell learned was discouraging. “No LWOPS were getting commuted,” he
told *Truthout*. At first, he thought filing would be a waste of time. But
in 2015, he changed his mind and, in 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown commuted
his sentence to 25 years to life
<https://archive.gov.ca.gov/archive/gov39/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/December-2018-Pardons-and-Commutations-1.pdf>,
allowing him to apply for parole. Bell was released in May 2020.

Bell is cautiously optimistic about the additional avenue, wondering if the
board will have the staffing to adequately identify prospective applicants.
In addition, the board has a low release rate: In October 2025, the
board granted
parole in only 23 percent
<https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/bph/2025/11/19/hearing-results-october-2025/> of
its 281 hearings, down from the 35 percent granted in 2023
<https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-10/newsom-clemency-process-menendez-brothers#:~:text=Gov.%20Gavin%20Newsom%20on%20Monday,to%20have%20their%20sentences%20shortened.>.
Still, Bell said, the change brings hope to those who fear dying in prison.
“We Have Been Burned So Many Times”

Inside prisons, feelings about the proposal are mixed. “We have been burned
so many times with these so-called additional avenues,” Annamaria Gana,
imprisoned at the California Institution for Women (CIW), told *Truthout.*

“There are certain things in my life that contributed to the way I thought
during my crime,” she explained*. *Gana grew up in the Philippines steeped
in a culture where family is paramount. But childhood taught her
differently. Three days before her seventh birthday, her father died by
suicide. No one told the young girl how he died. Years later, she assumed
that the silence meant that suicide was shameful. Her mother, struggling
with solo parenting, repeatedly told Gana and her siblings about the
sacrifices she made for them. Her words made Gana feel like a burden.

Still, Gana married and had two sons. In 2007, the family emigrated to the
United States on an investor visa, buying a UPS store and a small house to
rent for income. Three years later, Gana was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She had a double mastectomy, began chemotherapy, and took steroids to
counter the drugs’ effects. She lost her appetite and, despite taking
Ambien, her ability to sleep.

Gana had been the head of their business and, without her, the store
floundered. Their tenant stopped paying rent and the family needed to hire
a lawyer to evict him. The chemotherapy and steroids, coupled with their
financial woes, caused depression and suicidal ideation. She feared that
she might not survive and worried about her husband, nearly 31 years her
senior, and their sons.

“If I die, then everybody else should die with me,” she recalled thinking.

On Mother’s Day 2011, she shot and killed her husband and wounded their
16-year-old son. (Their 9-year-old was unharmed.) She tried to shoot
herself but survived. She was sentenced to 40 years to life.

When Gana entered CIW in 2015, the prison had the nation’s highest suicide
rate among women’s prisons
<https://truthout.org/articles/out-of-the-blue-loved-ones-search-for-answers-in-shaylene-graves-prison-death/>.
Gana joined the Suicide Prevention Outreach Committee, whose members met
weekly to come up with plans for awareness, prevention, and spotting red
flags. The next year, as part of the committee’s outreach, she shared her
story before hundreds of her peers and visiting state senators. She now
shares her story regularly in support groups.

In 2018, friends and prison staff encouraged her to apply for clemency. She
did and, months later, was interviewed by then-Governor Brown’s staff. “I
ended up crying the whole time,” she recalled. “I was not able to
articulate what happened.” Brown did not grant her clemency before he left
office; her application is still pending.

Since that disastrous interview, she has participated in numerous self-help
groups to understand her motivations. She also volunteers at support groups
and, like Mo, has not incurred a single disciplinary ticket during her 12
years in prison. Now, she’s asking for the chance to be reviewed, to talk
about what happened and the person she’s become.

The 56-year-old understands that her actions seem inexcusable. “A mom is
supposed to be a protector,” she reflected. “A mom is supposed to be not
causing harm to her children.”

Throughout her incarceration, she worked tirelessly to repair her
relationship with her sons. As children, they visited twice a month. Now in
their twenties, they visit several times a year. Both have firmly supported
her clemency efforts, even attempting to see the governor on her behalf.
(They were unsuccessful.)
[image: AnnaMaria Gana’s mother Evelyn holding a photo of Gana, her two
sons and Santa Claus during a Christmas visit.]AnnaMaria Gana’s mother
Evelyn holding a photo of Gana, her two sons and Santa Claus during a
Christmas visit.Evelyn Magno “Then Christmas Comes and Nobody Gets Called”

Kinzie Noordman knows firsthand how an additional avenue can simply be a
repeat vilification.

In 2003, Noordman, then 20, and her high school friend Damien Guerrero
brought their friend, 18-year-old Kelly Bullwinkle, to the woods where
Guerrero had dug a shallow grave the day before. Guerrero shot Bullwinkle,
injuring her. Noordman then fired the fatal shot. They attempted to hide
her body in the shallow grave.

“What I did was horrible,” Noordman told *Truthout *by phone. “There were
no mitigating factors.”

She confirmed that she and Bullwinkle had both been romantically involved
with Guerrero. But jealousy wasn’t her motivation, she explained. Shortly
before that night, she and Bullwinkle had argued about Guerrero — not about
their love triangle, but about their peers’ perceptions of Noordman. “She
told me that everyone was laughing at me because they knew I was in love
with Damien. I wanted to prove her wrong,” Noordman said.

“We were goths,” she continued. “We always talked about death and dying. It
was totally normal for us to discuss murder or violence.” It didn’t help
that Noordman was deep into methamphetamine and cocaine use, further
clouding her judgment as a teenager. When Guerrero once again brought up
wanting to kill someone, Noordman suggested Bullwinkle. “He didn’t say no,”
she recalled.

Guerrero was sentenced to 15 years to life. Noordman was sentenced to 25
years to life with a 20-year firearm enhancement, bringing her sentence to
45-to-life.

When she first entered prison, Noordman still blamed her co-defendant.
Then, she participated in the prison’s first Victim Offender Education
Group, an 18- to-24-month program based on restorative justice principles.
Incarcerated participants met with outside survivors of violence, sharing
their experiences and eating lunch together. Hearing about the ripple
effects of similar harms profoundly changed her view. “I didn’t want to
keep messing up and hurting other people,” she said. She enrolled in other
programs, including Bridges to Life, another restorative justice program.
When she was transferred to CIW, she started the program there and now
facilitates it every Sunday.

“Every time there’s a holiday, we’re like, ‘Is he gonna do it?’ … Then
Christmas comes and nobody gets called.”

She also had a chance to practice restorative justice in her own case. A
friend of Bullwinkle’s learned that Noordman had participated in a victim
awareness walk-a-thon in Bullwinkle’s honor. The woman reached out, leading
to a mediated conversation about how Noordman’s actions had affected both
of their lives. “She was getting ready to go to college. She couldn’t
really move forward. That [murder] derailed her plans,” Noordman recalled.
“She really needed to tell me that.”
[image: Kinzie Noordman’s mother Debby holding Kinzie’s commutation
application.]Kinzie Noordman’s mother Debby holding Kinzie’s commutation
application.Debby Noordman

Shortly after entering prison in 2005, Noordman received a write-up for
having hooch (homemade alcohol) in a common area. Since then, she has
remained disciplinary-free. In 2023, her near-spotless prison record caused
officials to recommend
<https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/family-resources/recall-resentencing/> a
resentencing hearing to remove the 20-year gun enhancement. The judge
acknowledged her positive contributions, but decided that her original
crime outweighed those improvements and denied resentencing.

Noordman applied for clemency in 2018 and, like Gana, was interviewed
months later by the governor’s staff. Since then, she has heard nothing.

“Every time there’s a holiday, we’re like, ‘Is he gonna do it?’” she said.
“Then Christmas comes and nobody gets called.”

The governor’s office did not say whether he plans to grant commutations
before the year ends.
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