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AP
Undated photo of convicted murderer Juan Corona.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A California man who once was the nation's worst known serial killer is up for parole, four decades after the mutilated bodies of 25 farmworkers were unearthed in orchards north of Sacramento.
Juan Corona, 77, has been diagnosed with dementia and mental illness. He is making his seventh bid for parole from Corcoran State Prison in the southern Central Valley.
None of his victims' relatives were expected to attend Monday's hearing, which Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams said is a sad testament to Corona's crime, which targeted people who had few relatives.
"We have had no contact with survivors for two decades now. The people who he killed were farm laborers who were itinerant. Most of them didn't have relatives who could be contacted back in the '70s at the time of trial," Adams said.
Four of the bodies have never been identified. The bodies of 14 of Corona's victims were never claimed by family members after they were discovered in 1971.
"Not even a single person has family here," Corona told a prison psychologist before his parole was last denied in 2003. "They were all ready to go to the next world."
Corona, a farm labor contractor with a history of mental illness, was convicted of stabbing the men, hacking open their heads and burying their remains near Yuba City, 40 miles north of Sacramento.
His attorney, Leon Harris III of Bakersfield, declined to comment before the hearing.
Assortment of weapons
His first conviction in 1973 was overturned on appeal, but he was convicted again in 1982 and sentenced to 25 concurrent life sentences. He was not eligible for the death penalty because California's capital punishment law had been ruled unconstitutional at the time.
It was the worst known killing spree in U.S. history, until John Wayne Gacy Jr. was convicted in 1980 of murdering 33 young men and boys in his Chicago home. Gacy was executed in 1994 in Illinois.
Investigators found a machete, a meat cleaver, a double-bladed ax and a wooden club, all stained with blood, in Corona's home, along with a ledger book containing the names of seven of the victims.
Most of his victims were white, though several were black or Native American. There was no known racial motivation for his crimes, Adams said.
Corona, a Mexican national and native of Jalisco, Mexico, has maintained his innocence, though at earlier parole hearings he acted confused and told the parole board he didn't recall much. His attorneys have argued that his mental and physical condition makes him less dangerous.
Adams said his deterioration makes him a greater threat to himself and others.
"He is unreliably dangerous. He's also old and not in a condition where he can do well on the streets without prison supervision," Adams said. "Releasing him into the public wouldn't be doing him any good or the public any good."
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Leave a Comment:
sentenced to 25 life terms and still eligible for parole...what is wrong with this picture?
Everything.
Most of his victims were white, though several were black or Native American. There was no known racial motivation for his crimes, Adams said.
So following the liberal logic of the author; a Mexican kills white, black and Native Americans exclusively but there's no racial motivation. I, as a whie person, am against illegals like him from staying in AZ and I'm called a Nazi, racist bigot...and I haven't killed any Mexicans. Makes perfect sense in liberal La La land...
Considering his crimes, he should remain where he is. Even if they are just doing "so called routine" checking, 25 life terms should mean exactly that. NO parole should even be considered. Hopefully, even with his advancing age, dimentia, etc. they will keep him there in Prison. His attorney should be shot right along with the parole board for considering this parole action. I wouldn't want this man in my neighborhood.
this pig should be used for target practice, no parole just paint him red and let him run around and our officers can get some needed target practice with a moving target.
They will probably try to push this, strictly because he is a Mexican citizen, at the time he was a contractor for labor, but probably still illegal. Now the state is in this PC mode, so they think that it's politically correct to let him out......just one more mexican to run the streets as a known murderer. Innocent, he's still claiming he's innocent, LOL. You don't find too many illegals that don't insist they are innocent......You know.
I think they should use this guy to patrol our border. They are alway's short of people to patrol the border.
This man should have been executed a long time ago. Death Penalty should be made retroactive to all these scumbags who were lucky enough to slide through during the warm fuzzy time period when they could not be put down like the animals there are.
Keep him in jail where he gets 3 meals a day.
He needs to die in prison. Period.
No dought this P.O.S is institutionalized and will not be a productive member of our society.He deserves to be 6 feet in the ground.Since California can't seem to accomplish that,leave him where he is!!!!
Don't be stupid people. Being up for parole and actually getting it are two completely different things. The judge still has to find him fit for it. Id imagine if the judge found him fit to be released on parole he would no longer be a judge.
Unless you are the 9th District Court.
Texas practically has an express lane for the execution of guys like this, and where I live in VA, he would have fried years ago... Nothing like tree huggin, granola munchin, liberal, hippies from California...
Again: Don't be stupid people. Being up for parole and actually getting it are two completely different things. The judge still has to find him fit for it. Id imagine if the judge found him fit to be released on parole he would no longer be a judge.
If he's a Mexican citizen just send him back there and let them deal with him. He wasted enough of our tax Dollars.
A senile convicted murderer suffering dementia. The last place he belongs is on the streets. Keep him in prison or a prison hospital until he completes one of those 25 life terms, then let him re-apply.
The judge will not allow him parole without sacrificing his own career. Why do people think he might actually get it?
Where would he be paroled too? He is 77 years old, currently has mental issues and dementia.
He won't. You are not given parole as a right. I doubt this guy will be getting any "gifts"
Yeah, keep him in prison where he belongs! It doesnt matter that his victims dont have family!! What does that have to do with it? He is still dangerous! Even says "Juan Corona, 77, has been diagnosed with dementia and mental illness" so why would you let a nut out? To kill more? he gets confused? Well maybe he will get confused again & kill some more! Its in their blood, its in their brains! To kill so many, he should have been killed too! Never too late!
The fascist views of the right wing here are wonderful! When it's their red neck is in prison, they will only want a bleeding heart to give them a consideration. Like the sentences of the convicted enron corp were not light. These people deserve the same right winged mentality...ooops there are right wing too...no wonder they were given such sweet sentences for their horrific crimes! You can NEVER compare California to a ass backwards state like texass. In Cal your innocent to proven guilty, in texass, if your not right wing, your guilty!
For gods sake can we just let this monster die in jail
put him in next episode of LOST.
the fact that tax payers have kept someone like this alive, here in the u.s. is almost as disgraceful as the crimes he committed. theres no reform for this guy.......! drown his ass in the rio grande and catapult him back to mexico..
You get a death penalty, one appeal..one bullet. Much cheaper than a life without parole.
I agree that he should NOT be released. He’s already been there this long, just let him die there. I’m not familiar with this case, wasn’t alive yet, but if he’s guilt he deserves to rot in prison. I am, however, saddened and disgusted to read some people’s comments. Some of these descriptive statements about how he should have been executed are just as horrific as the very crimes he was convicted of. The way some people think scares me. An eye for an eye will just leave you both blind. If he is to be condemned for murder the state should be as well if he was executed. Civilized people should not behave or think this way. He is not civilized and for that he must be kept out of society.
Keeping someone caged in a jail cell presumably in solitary confinement decade after decade is more cruel than the death penalty. At least after death he would no longer suffer from the incarceration and mental sickness he has. The death penalty is humane.
im sure the people he killed are pleased that we would handle there killer in a humane and politically correct fashion.. mourn the dead dont piss on there graves, for they have no voice. hes a savage and showed no mercy on his victims.
Look for the ACLU to fight for his release if he is turned down. Just can't have a murderer spend his whole life in prison.
The sicko should be set free from our American prison and deported back to to his home country!! Why should we have to spend any more of our American dollars supporting this hideous illegal alien? I say let the Mexican government have at him!
" though at earlier parole hearings he acted confused and told the parole board he didn't recall much. His attorneys have argued that his mental and physical condition makes him less dangerous."
I suppose that he has not lost the presence of mind not to entertain the thought to fight for his freedom...
Dementia and Mental Illness my eye! All the more reason to keep him safely in prison..for his own protection and the Free World...25 life sentences does not a free man make...ever! Sorry...
I wonder....if you add up the cost of the imprisonment of all the illegals in the USA.....How many times over could that fence have been built ??
Or would that expense have covered the cost of implementing a system of checks by employers and so forth.
I say, send the old bastard back to Mex. He can spend the rest of his days in a Mex. prison.