On Friday, a California judge will review the possibility of rescinding the death sentence for Richard Allen Davis, who was convicted of abducting 12-year-old Polly Klaas from her bedroom at knifepoint in 1993, a crime that stunned the nation. Davis' attorney argued in a February court filing that his death sentence should be overturned due to recent changes in California sentencing laws, including a 2019 moratorium on executions, The Associated Press reports. The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office opposes any change, saying that Davis’ attorneys’ arguments are “nonsensical” and that the laws they are citing don’t apply to Davis’s death sentence for Klaas’ murder.
Davis was convicted of kidnapping Klaas from her bedroom in October 1993 and strangling her to death. That night, she and two friends held a slumber party and her mother slept in a nearby room. Klaas’ disappearance touched off a nationwide search by thousands of volunteers. Davis was arrested two months later and led police to the child’s body, which was found in a shallow grave 50 miles north of her home in Sonoma County. Jurors in 1996 found Davis guilty of first-degree murder and of the “special circumstances” of kidnapping, burglary, robbery and attempting a lewd act on a child. Davis, who had an extensive kidnap and assault record going back to the 1970s, was sentenced to death. The case was a major driver behind California’s passage of a so-called “three strikes” law in 1994 that set longer sentences for repeat offenders.