It’s been 30 years since 12-year-old California resident Polly Klaas was kidnapped in 1993 from a sleepover at knifepoint by Richard Allen Davis and strangled to death.
Davis is rotting behind bars at the state’s San Quentin prison, when he should, as per his sentence, be dead.
But in 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on the death penalty, stating that no one on death row in California can be executed while he’s in the state’s top office.
Years later, Polly’s father, Marc Klaas, has three words for the progressive governor: “Newsom is a pig.”
“In 2019, he declared a death penalty moratorium in California,” Klaas told Fox News Digital. “He told me, among other things, that he didn’t want to be the governor who executes an innocent person.”
(Video: Fox News Digital)
When Polly was taken from her Petaluma home on October 1, 1993, it sparked a two-month search and manhunt, ABC News recalled. The network aired in September a “20/20” episode detailing the case.
Actress Winona Ryder famously got involved with the search, offering a $200,000 reward for information that would lead to Polly’s return.
Davis was arrested for the heinous crime, and it was discovered he had “a pages-long rap sheet that included time served in prison for a previous kidnapping,” ABC News reported.
“An FBI forensic lab was able to match the clothing fibers found at Polly’s home to the clothing that Jaffe found during her hike,” according to the outlet. “The forensic teams also matched Davis’ palm print with one found at the crime scene.”
Ultimately, “Polly’s body was recovered and Davis was charged with first-degree murder with four special circumstances- robbery, burglary, kidnapping, and attempted lewd act on a child- which made him eligible for the death penalty.”
(Video: YouTube)
But, with his moratorium, Newsom took that option off the table.
“The intentional killing of another person is wrong and as Governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual,” Newsom said in a 2019 statement. “Our death penalty system has been, by all measures, a failure. It has discriminated against defendants who are mentally ill, black and brown, or can’t afford expensive legal representation. It has provided no public safety benefit or value as a deterrent. It has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Most of all, the death penalty is absolute. It’s irreversible and irreparable in the event of human error.”
Klaas currently runs a nonprofit to prevent crimes against children called Klaas Kids.
Social media and the internet has “changed the way that the public and law enforcement approach missing kids,” he told Fox News Digital.
“For example, when we distributed Polly’s missing flyer, we acquired a mailing list, spent $15,000 on stamps, printed thousands of flyers, put them in envelopes and took them to the post office,” he explained. “The flyers began arriving about a week after we started the process. Now, you can create a missing child [Facebook] page, fill it with pictures and videos, link articles, television reports, testimonials and law enforcement contact information. This process costs nothing and can be regularly updated.”
However, Klaas warns, the internet does have a dark side.
“On the other side of that coin, the proliferation of child porn has emboldened a new generation of pedophiles to use the internet to access and victimize children,” he said. “They anonymously infiltrate chat rooms, gaming sites and other online destinations that can leave children vulnerable.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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