California Considers Pardoning a Cambodian Refugee Who Killed a Woman When He Was a Teenager
25 October 2018
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — By his own account, Borey Ai was a 14-year-old gangster when he killed a woman during a robbery that netted about $300.

He spent 19 years in prison before parole officials decided he had turned his life around. He walked out of San Quentin prison in November 2016 and into the custody of waiting federal immigration agents.

Ai is now 37 and asking California Gov. Jerry Brown to wipe away his criminal conviction and likely prevent his deportation to Cambodia, a nation where his mother was born but he has never seen. After prison, he spent 18 months in federal detention but was freed in May after Cambodia refused to accept him — for now.

Parole officials recommended a pardon for Ai last week. Dozens of advocates turned in more than 36,000 signatures Wednesday asking Brown to pardon Ai and others before he leaves office in January.

They held 60 origami cranes and rang a Buddhist bell 60 times, one for each of the 60 people nationwide they said are facing deportation to Cambodia. About half are from California, given its large Cambodian population, and about a dozen have pardon petitions before Brown, with more on the way, said Angela Chan, a spokeswoman for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus.

The prospect frustrates relatives of Ai’s victim, Manijeh Eshaghoff. The governor in the last 10 months has pardoned seven ex-convicts who otherwise faced the threat of deportation to Cambodia, bringing an angry tweet from President Donald Trump in March.

Ai was tried as an adult, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after California dropped the minimum age for trying juveniles as adults from 16 to 14 in 1995. California this year reversed course, barring any 14- or 15-year-olds from being tried outside the juvenile system, even for murder.
http://time.com/5434203/california-pard ... e-robbery/

So does the woman he killed gets to come back and live a full, rich life?

California court blocks governor's pardon of Cambodian refugee who killed woman when he was 14
14 December 2018

In a rare step, the California Supreme Court has blocked Gov. Jerry Brown's attempt to issue a pardon to a 37-year-old Cambodian refugee who killed a woman when he was 14 years old.

The court gave no reason for the rejection, but earlier noted it only had the authority to do so in the case of an "abuse of power." Brown's pardon would have effectively stopped Borey Ai's deportation to Cambodia, a nation where his mother was born but he has never seen.

The governor in the last 10 months has pardoned seven ex-convicts who otherwise faced the threat of deportation to Cambodia, drawing the ire of President Donald Trump, whose administration has stepped up efforts to deport immigrants with criminal convictions.

It takes at least four votes of the seven justices to block pardons. The unsigned ruling Wednesday didn't say how many justices voted to block the pardon. The governor is required to obtain the court's approval for pardons and sentence commutations for twice-convicted felons.

Appellate lawyer David Ettinger said it appears the last time the court rejected a governor's pardon occurred in 1930.

A spokesman for the governor, Brian Ferguson, declined comment.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nat ... y,amp.html