http://www.ocregister.com/news/sanchez- ... ction.html


legal team from USC has filed a pardon request with the state on behalf of a mother of four who was promptly deported to Mexico after serving 23 years in prison for first-degree murder and arson.

Rosie Sanchez, 49, who insists she never set the 1985 blaze in Los Angeles, should be allowed to live or visit with her adult daughter in Anaheim or other three adult children, according to the filing by USC Law's Post-Conviction Justice Project.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until the end of his term in January to act on the request for a pardon, which is based on the legal theory of "actual innocence."

Pardons forgive a crime but do not erase a conviction, and typically are granted to individuals who have demonstrated exemplary behavior following conviction for a felony, according to the governor's office.

In a rare move, Schwarzenegger did not block Sanchez's release from prison after the state Parole Board, ruling on her case for the first time, recommended in October that she be freed.

Sanchez was released from prison March 18. She was deported the same day, however, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declared her an undocumented alien.

Sanchez believes she was in the country legally when she was arrested, running a business, carrying a driver's license and paying taxes. Sanchez never completed her paperwork to become a legal resident, however, ICE officials said.

Among the ammunition Sanchez's lawyers used in arguing for her to be paroled was a letter sent to the Parole Board by the commissioner who presided over her criminal trial.

Commissioner Sam Bubrick said in his letter to the Parole Board that her conviction continued to "haunt" him and was one of the few times in his 59 years on the bench that he felt justice was not served.

The only evidence introduced at trial against Sanchez was an 18-year-old man who, along with the victim, Epiphanio Ramos, and a 13-year-old, was sleeping in a competitor's clothing business when fire broke out.

The witness placed Sanchez at the scene; she insisted she was at home. A jury sided with the prosecution, and Sanchez was sentenced to 25 years to life.

A pardon by the governor would be rare, and would remove a significant barrier to Sanchez being allowed to legally return to the United States -- but would in no way guarantee it.

Sanchez, now living with a friend in her native Mexicali, still would have to apply to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to be allowed back into the country.

Once a person has been deported, however, it's difficult to win approval to return legally, according to an agency official.

Still, Sanchez and her legal team, as well as her four children, remain hopeful.

At a news conference Thursday morning on the front steps of the USC Gould School of Law, they said that Sanchez has been unfairly punished for a crime she never committed.

"After so many years in prison, this is the least we can do to insure that justice is served," said Heidi Rummel, a USC law professor and supervising attorney for the USC Law Post-Conviction Justice Project.

USC Law students have been representing Sanchez for the last decade. Sanchez turned to the team of student lawyers after a deadline to re-appeal her case passed.

Sanchez first appealed her conviction on her own, but it was rejected.

In the application for a pardon, her attorneys argued that the testimony by the eyewitness was problematic, and that she had no motive to burn down a competitor's business since her business was doing well.

Sanchez also had no insurance to collect if her business, located in the same building, were to burn down, her lawyers said – erasing another possible motive.

Sanchez also has been a model prisoner for 23 years, serving the prison community by knitting clothes and doing other community work, her lawyers said.

At the news conference, Sanchez's four children said they communicate with her regularly via a Facebook page and through other online means, but they want her back for good.

"We need her – our kids need her," said her daughter, also named Rosie Sanchez, 27, of Anaheim.