A condemned killer will make a remarkable return to Oakland’s streets after the state parole board decided he had served enough time for his three murders, two attempted murders and robbery.
In a rampage across Oakland in the small hours of January 30 1989, Robert Young killed Terry Rivers with a shot to the head during a drug robbery and, later, fatally shot Glen Frazier as he begged for his life.
Less than one month later Young crashed through the living room window of a crack house in the city’s Eastmont district and opened fire. Sylvester Davis was shot and killed after he had jumped through a bedroom window in an effort to escape.
Two others grievously wounded after being shot by Young survived. Young later violently assaulted a witness in county jail whom he felt had “snitched”.
He was convicted by an Alameda jury in 1990 and given the death penalty.
In 2010, he left death row after successfully arguing that executing him would be unconstitutional because of his low IQ.
In 2015 he won a new trial after persuading a federal judge that had been treated unfairly by the jury because he was black.
As a consequence, in 2019, he pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and was handed a 15 years to life term, making him parole eligible.
Unless Governor Gavin Newsom intervenes, Young will walk out of Solano State Prison by December 6.
Young was sentenced to death for the murders of Rivers and Davis and 25 years to life for the murder of Frazier. A 45-year sentence for the attempted murders and robbery was stayed.
The California Supreme Court affirmed the verdict and death sentence in 2005. The justices took pains to dismiss defense claims that Young had been incompetent to stand trial.
Young’s first stroke of good fortune came in 2010 when he successfully argued that he suffered from mental retardation so severe that he couldn’t be constitutionally executed. He was resentenced to life without parole.
In 2015 he persuaded liberal federal judge Jon Tigar that the trial jury was biased against him because he was black and that they had misconducted themselves during deliberations. Because of Tigar’s ruling Young was sent back to Alameda county where a process for a new trial began.
In 2019 Judge Allan Hymer – an ex-public defender – quashed Young’s convictions for first-degree murder, switched them to second-degree murder and imposed a term of 15 years to life.
That made him immediately eligible for parole.
A newly-released transcript of the August 8 hearing reveals the parole panel was persuaded that Young was a changed man, his risk of future violence had lessened, and he had detailed plans for life outside prison.
“[T]he violent and antisocial and illegal conduct and gang-affiliated conduct in prison…stopped in 2015…not accidentally, but with intentionality,”
Parole Commissioner Jack Weiss
“[T]he violent and antisocial and illegal conduct and gang-affiliated conduct in prison…stopped in 2015…not accidentally, but with intentionality,” noted Presiding Commissioner Jack Weiss approvingly of Young’s conduct over the last decade.
For his part, Alameda prosecutor Robert Graff mustered little in the way of argument against Young’s release – a circumstance obliquely acknowledged by Weiss when he praised both lawyers at the hearing’s end.
“I want to thank both lawyers for being such strong, impressive professionals in what they said and in what they didn’t say today,” said Weiss.
Among the things that went unsaid by the prosecutor were any remembrance of the victims, any recognition of survivors’ suffering, any acknowledgement of the community impact, and any meaningful examination of the prisoner’s professed rehabilitation. He did say he opposed parole.
When it came time for attorneys to suggest questions to put to the inmate – a crucial opportunity for prosecutors to seek further information or explore areas the inmate may have tried to cover up – Graff decided to plow his own furrow.
“Let me now check in with Mr Graff and see if the D.A. had any other questions to suggest today,” said Weiss after he had finished his own.
“I don’t,” replied Graff. “Thank you for the opportunity.”
Graff’s understated performance and the presiding commissioner’s comments raise the question of whether the prosecutor’s office was tacitly backing parole.
By way of comparison, when Graff unsuccessfully opposed parole for child killer Chazarus Hill in May this year he asked eight detailed questions of the inmate, consistently referencing the victim and highlighting particularly troubling aspects of the crime to Commissioners.
A spokesman for Alameda District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson did not respond to questions about her office’s presentation at the parole hearing.
“At the time he committed these multiple horrific crimes he was 20 years old,” said Young’s attorney Katey Gilbert.
“The hallmark features of youth are clearly present in this case. And, as he was able to describe here today, he was an uneducated, hurt kid who then became a very hateful young teenager.”
Young told the commissioners that, instead of violently assaulting people, he now uses breathing techniques to quell his rage. He demonstrated the exercises to the parole panel during the hearing.
“I would never hurt another human in my life.”
Robert Young
“I would never hurt another human in my life,” Young told parole commissioners. “That’s why I am who I am today. That’s why, when I’m challenged, I don’t want to fight nobody. I don’t want to harm nobody.”
“When I was in High Desert [State Prison] I used to have to be up there in that carrying knives. I was willing to hurt. But, now it’s like: I’m not hurting nobody.”
“While I was on death row I participated in a lot of gang activity and I encouraged a lot of 115s [rules violation reports] and, while I was there, got involved with 415 KUMI,” he said, referring to a black prison gang. “But since I’ve been off of death row I disassociated myself with all criminal activity.”
Young made no mention of the innocent men he continually tried to frame for his crimes.
After deliberating for 23 minutes Weiss announced that he and Deputy Commissioner Daniel Blake had determined that Young was suitable for parole.
“You see all the elements of diminished culpability of juveniles compared to adults and all the truly awful hallmark features of youth in this murderous crime spree,” Weiss explained. “It’s awful to see it, but it’s unmistakable that that’s what we’re seeing.”
“And the person today demonstrates much subsequent growth and increased maturity throughout the way.”
Looming over the session was Young’s first parole hearing in November 2022 – presided over by ex-death row guard Michael Ruff and which appeared to set the stage for Young’s release.
“You don’t have to read between that many lines of Commissioner Ruff’s decision to see how praiseworthy it was and how [it] clearly telegraphed today’s result,” said Weiss last month.
Ruff’s panel denied Young parole for a three-year period, but this was brought forward at Young’s request.
Young’s case is the latest instance of liberal California judges disregarding the verdict of juries, and the judgments of their own predecessors on the bench, in service of a belief that the state’s most depraved killers deserve another chance.
They are aided by politicians’ constant whittling away at inmates’ sentences – loosening standards for parole eligibility, increasing powers for judges to resentence criminals to lower terms and allowing convicts to make spurious complaints of unfair treatment because of their race.
No decision is ever final. Litigation is perpetual until release is secured.
Young remains in Solano State Prison awaiting a mandatory review of his parole decision by the Board of Parole Hearings’ decision review unit – which checks all grants of parole for legal and factual accuracy – that must be completed by December 6 2025.
After that check, unless Governor Newsom exercises the authority he enjoys in murder cases to modify or reverse parole decisions, he will be freed.
Newsom reversed grants of parole on 11 occasions in 2024 – a year in which there were 3,768 parole hearings and 1,154 grants of parole.
Update: In a Black Friday letter to parole commissioners, Newsom expressed misgivings over whether Young’s plans for release adequately protected public safety and told them to look again at their decision. As a result, the decision will be reviewed ‘en banc’ at one of the board’s monthly meetings, likely in December 2025 or January 2026.
Please support our work by using this Paypal link
To be notified of new stories enter your email address here or follow us on X
