Man who tortured and killed San Francisco boy on verge of freedom after prison officials’ compassionate release plea
A man sentenced to life without parole for butchering a San Francisco boy is on the verge of release after state prison officials said he should be freed on compassionate grounds.
Just weeks ago, they quietly sent the case back to the same city judge who already gave the killer a major break in a 2022 resentencing branded a “travesty” by prosecutors.
Edward Kennedy’s 1996 attack on Sergio Crockett culminated in him stabbing the 15-year-old 44 times before dumping his body on a city street and ditching the knife in a Golden Gate Park lake.
He was convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances.
In an April 23 letter, California Correctional Health Care Services says that Kennedy meets the criteria for compassionate release and tells the court it must promptly schedule a hearing.
“Mr Kennedy has been diagnosed with multiple serious and advanced illnesses including Crohn’s disease, liver cirrhosis, Parkinsonian tremors, a paralyzed bladder requiring a chronic indwelling catheter and cognitive impairment,” wrote Brittany Brizendine, director of health care services.
The court has agreed to add Kennedy’s release motion to its calendar.
The appeal to release Kennedy is being heard by the same judge, ex-public defender Brendan Conroy, who resentenced him in 2022 and made him immediately eligible for parole and, hence, compassionate release.
That resentencing was driven by former public defenders installed in the district attorney’s office by ousted DA Chesa Boudin. The hearing itself took place just 10 days into current DA Brooke Jenkins’ tenure. She later said she was unaware it was happening and called it a “travesty” and an “injustice”.
Jenkins’ spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s attempt to secure Kennedy’s release.
Kennedy was denied parole at his first attempt in September 2024. Despite claims of cognitive impairment, he appeared lucid when explaining why he killed Sergio Crockett.
“I stabbed him to death because I was on the crack and smoking crack makes me evil,” Kennedy told parole commissioners.
“I wanted his dope, I wanted his money and the only way I could get it was to act evil. As long as I’m not acting evil I’m alright.”
“One of the main reasons that I killed Sergio is that there would be no witnesses…[to] robbing him and stabbing him,” he said.
In 2024, the last year for which data is available, 140 cases were referred by corrections officials to a superior court with a recommendation for compassionate release. 87 inmates were released, 22 were denied release and 10 died while proceedings were ongoing. 21 cases remained pending.
Most referrals involved inmates described as being on an “end of life trajectory”. Kennedy’s case appears to rest on claims of functional and cognitive impairment affecting his daily life.
Compassionate release criteria were broadened by a 2023 law authored by then-assemblymember Rob Bonta and later steered through the legislature by Phil Ting, tilting the process toward release unless a court finds a serious public safety risk.
The current hearings mark the culmination of years of effort by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office to secure Kennedy’s release.
Even as the office has argued its resources are too stretched to represent many new defendants, it has devoted signficant attention to this case, and earlier this year persuaded the parole board to bring forward the convict’s next hearing by a year.
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