The Third Appellate District denied a petition for writ of mandate. The court held that the Governor, in reconsidering on remand from the court of appeal a prior decision to reverse a grant of parole, was not limited to the evidence which was before the Board of Parole Hearings when it made its original decision years before, but could also consider more recent evidence of dangerousness.
In 1984, Timothy Ross committed a second-degree murder for which he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. In 2006, the Board of Parole Hearings found Ross to be eligible for parole. The Governor reversed the board’s decision, finding that Ross’s criminal history, the “extremely brutal and callous” nature of the murder, and Ross’s misconduct in state prison, including threats to prison staff, demonstrated that Ross’s release would pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society.
