Students in Post-Conviction Justice Project lead effort
-Gilien Silsby
The USC Gould School of Law’s Post-Conviction Justice Project is fighting on behalf of a woman who was a victim of human trafficking at age 13 and later convicted of first-degree murder after her captor forced her to bury the body of a man he murdered while she was eight months pregnant.
Represented by a team of USC Law students and professors, Marisol Garcia, 36, was found suitable for parole in March by the state Board of Parole hearings. Her case was sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on July 12.
Schwarzenegger has 30 days to decide Garcia’s future: He can approve the parole board’s grant of parole or he can reject the grant and keep her in prison.
“Marisol Garcia was trafficked into the United States from Mexico at the age of 13,” said Andrew Merten, a second-year USC Law student, who is representing Garcia under the supervision of USC Law professor Heidi Rummel. “Because Marisol could not pay the coyote the $200 smuggling fee, he sold her to a man who drugged her, raped her and beat her almost daily for six years. When she was 19 years old and eight months pregnant with his child, he forced her to bury the body of a man he shot and killed. For that she was convicted of first-degree murder.”
The murder took place in a migrant worker camp outside San Diego in June 1993.
Garcia’s captor, Rafael Martinez, and his friend, Fernando Pereda, shot and killed a man in a dispute over a case of beer. Per Martinez’s instructions, Marisol stood as a lookout. A jury acquitted her of this murder. Two weeks later, Martinez shot and killed Pereda to prevent him from going to authorities to report the earlier murder.
“As their toddler son stood by, Martinez gave Garcia a gun and told her to kill Pereda as he slept on an abandoned couch,” Rummel said. “She couldn’t do it - Garcia returned the gun to Martinez and begged him to kill her before he killed their son so she would not have to watch her son die. Martinez then shot Pereda in the head three times and forced Garcia to bury the body.”
Garcia’s participation in both crimes was predicated on Martinez’s threats - which she knew from experience would lead to serious abuse - against her, her young son and her unborn child (she earlier had a miscarriage due to his beatings).
Because the courts did not generally admit expert testimony on Battered Women’s Syndrome until two years after Garcia’s conviction, no evidence of trafficking or domestic abuse was introduced at her trial. Garcia’s jury convicted her of first-degree murder for burying Pereda and the court sentenced her to 25 years to life in prison.
Garcia has an exemplary prison record. Although she entered prison with almost no formal education, she is now fluent in English and enrolled in Adult Basic Education classes, working toward a Graduate Equivalency Degree.
“Marisol has served 17 years in prison - her entire adult life - for the crimes of Rafael Martinez,” Rummel said. “She has suffered enough, and we believe the governor will do the right thing by allowing the board’s grant of parole to stand.”
In an almost unprecedented decision, the Board of Parole hearings found Garcia suitable for parole at her initial parole hearing on March 10. The board detailed her “exceptionally positive” conduct in prison, “tremendous growth” and lack of any record of violence during her incarceration.
Schwarzenegger has until Aug. 10 to decide whether to allow the board’s grant of parole to stand.
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