death row tour los angeles

Dearly Departed Tours

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Homicide True Crime Tour

Homicide true crime tour.

Dearly Departed Tours’ curator Scott Michaels has personally assembled a collection of True Crime stories around LA that are so very gruesome, so “out-there”, they deserve their own Los Angeles Tour. Decapitation, strangulation, a chainsaw, arson, call-girl/prostitution murders, spree and serial killers and a PLANE CRASH all around the Hollywood and West Hollywood area. Not for the faint of heart or the prissy, this is our grisliest tour yet!

“Our grisliest tour yet ”

*Disclaimer: Tour routes can potentially change from day to day due to any circumstances.

The last days of death row in California: ‘Your soul is tested here’

After decades locked alone in small cages in San Quentin, men sentenced to die brace for sweeping change

S an Quentin prison guards shackled Keith Doolin’s hands behind his back and escorted him to a small cage. It was 8am on a Saturday in early March, and Doolin, along with a dozen other men – all condemned to be executed by the state of California – sat in roughly 6ft by 8ft cells. There were metal bars on all sides and overhead, giving the death row visiting room the appearance of an animal shelter.

Doolin, 50, smiled as he explained why he chose to wear a tattered blue shirt that the prison had given him more than two decades ago. Unlike newer prison uniforms, his outfit has no “inmate” label or “California department of corrections and rehabilitation” (CDCR) marking: “I’ll wear this shirt until it falls off … Here, they strip you of your name and give you a CDC number. It’s part of the psychological warfare – tearing you down, making you feel worthless and not even acknowledging you as a human.”

For 27 years on death row, Doolin has been locked inside a solitary cell, often for 23 hours of the day. In that time, he’s never walked without a guard escort; moved without his hands shackled; used a cellphone or laptop; stepped on grass ; or eaten a meal with a group of people.

But Doolin may not be living under these conditions much longer. In March, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he would be transforming San Quentin , one of the oldest and most notorious prisons in the US, into a “rehabilitation center” modeled after facilities in Norway, which have few restrictions and prioritize comfortable conditions and preparing people to come home. Newsom, who halted executions in 2019, has pledged to close the housing units that make up death row, the largest in the country, to make way for the “pre-eminent restorative justice facility in the world”.

The 546 San Quentin residents on death row will continue to have death sentences, but will be transferred to the general population of prisons across the state – which is likely to give them some basic amenities and small freedoms of movement they’ve been denied for decades.

In dozens of interviews with men living through the final days of San Quentin’s death row facilities, some described a fresh sense of hope, while others spoke of their deep anxieties and fears about the change. Many are left pondering: what does it mean to leave death row if you’re still sentenced to execution? And if the governor is serious about reform, will they ever get to experience life outside of prison?

S an Quentin prison, established in 1852, sits on a peninsula north of San Francisco, with picturesque views of the bay and a long, winding bridge that disappears into the fog in the distance. A tall watchtower near the edge of the shore overlooks the walled complex, which has four large cell blocks and a maximum-security facility.

It’s hard to see the water or much of anything outside for those imprisoned in East Block, which houses death row, with five floors of roughly 4ft by 10ft cells stacked on one another – “like sardines in a can”, Doolin said. Each room has a toilet, sink and a steel-frame bed.

“I live 200 feet from the ocean, but I can’t stick my feet in it,” said Doolin. “One day, I’d love to go to a beach, put my toes in the sand, watch the waves and just take a deep breath.” In his cell, small enough to touch both walls at the same time, Doolin sleeps on the floor, so he can use his bed as his desk to store hundreds of legal papers and his most prized possession – his typewriter.

Doolin, a former truck driver, has dealt with the threat of execution by pouring most of his waking hours into his legal efforts to prove his innocence: “Your mind and body and soul are tested here. This place is built for destroying your willpower. But I’m not going to shut up and sit in the corner. I’ll keep fighting with what little I have.”

Doolin, who was convicted of killing two sex workers and shooting four others, signs all his mail “factual innocent man behind bars since 10/18/1995”. His attorneys submitted evidence suggesting a witness for the prosecution was responsible for one of the murders. Following this person’s suicide in 2001 while in jail for another murder, her attorney filed a declaration saying he had information “exonerating” Doolin, but would not disclose it unless a court waived his attorney-client privilege. Doolin has also argued ineffectual counsel after his appointed trial lawyer, who had recently gone bankrupt amid gambling debts, pocketed most of the funds meant for investigators and experts.

In the visiting room, Doolin ate a frozen burger from a vending machine outside of his cage. “It’s amazing how something so simple can mean so much,” he said. Around him, the other men of death row sat with their mothers and partners, eating snacks and microwaved food that visitors can buy for them and playing cards as officers stood by. The staff allowed them to briefly hug inside their cells, though a sign nearby warned against “excessive displays of affection”.

Doolin is anxious about the upcoming transfers. He’s worried he won’t be able to keep his typewriter and doesn’t know how he’ll store all his legal papers if he’s in a shared cell. He’s also scared of being transferred farther from his lawyers in San Francisco and his mother, who lives in Redding, three hours north of San Quentin.

“Being forcibly moved to another prison, it adds another 10,000 pounds of weight on my shoulders. What if I’m moved down south and am twice as far from my family and my lawyers?”

I n 2020, CDCR began a pilot program that allowed 100 of those condemned to death to voluntarily transfer off death row and move to other prisons, a process that will now become mandatory for all with death sentences.

Ramon Rogers, 63, and on death row since 1997, jumped at the opportunity: “I was itching to get out of there. I knew there were going to be better and brighter things in store for me than what I had to look forward to in the last 24 years.”

Leaving death row was immediately overwhelming. His group of about a dozen men, heading to a prison outside Los Angeles in July 2021, made a brief stop in the Central Valley, and as they stepped off of their bus, many of them froze in their tracks, he said.

For the first time in decades, they were standing on grass.

When they explained to a guard why they were so stunned, the officer allowed them to walk to an even lusher patch of grass nearby. “We just marveled at the softness and the smell of the grass and the earth. It was remarkable. The officer let us stand there and watch as we left our footprints in the grass. It’s just an amazing thing that people take for granted.”

At their new prison, Correll Thomas, 49, who had been on death row since 1999, experienced sensory overload: “On the yard, it’s just movement – people running laps at different speeds, people doing push-ups and exercising, someone’s throwing a football back and forth, people playing soccer while others are playing football. I was keeping my head on a swivel, trying to take in as much as I can, turning right to left every two seconds. On death row, we don’t have such fast movements.”

Being able to leave his cell without handcuffs and without a full-body strip search was also a welcome change: “For 22 years, I was handcuffed and escorted around like I was an animal. Now I don’t have to strip down naked when I’m called for a medical appointment any more. It’s a lot more freedom.”

Rogers, now in a prison in San Diego, said some men were so conditioned to being shackled that they continued to put their hands in that position even when they were no longer handcuffed. He said he’d also come to appreciate the little things – getting a cold ice-cream from the canteen, or doing yard time in the evening, allowing him to, for the first time in his incarceration, see the night sky.

C alifornia’s first execution was a hanging at San Quentin in 1893. Five hundred people were subsequently put to death until the state supreme court struck down the death penalty in 1972, deeming it “impermissibly cruel”. Voters, however, quickly approved a ballot measure to restore capital punishment, and since 1978, more than 1,000 people have been condemned to death , though only 13 have been executed, as appeals take decades. The most recent execution was in 2006 by lethal injection.

There are severe disparities in this system, which has cost the state $4bn since the 1970s. Black people make up 6.5% of California’s population, but more than one-third of those on death row. The vast majority of those sentenced to death over the last decade have been people of color . At least one-third of people on death row also have diagnosed serious mental illnesses, and the population is ageing , with 250 people age 60 and older, 38% of the population. There are 20 women with death sentences, housed in the state’s largest women’s prison.

East Block looks like a parking lot for wheelchairs these days, Doolin said, given how many residents are elderly and disabled.

While there is growing bipartisan opposition to the death penalty, including from some victims’ advocates , the plan to close San Quentin’s death row has been met with skepticism and concern from some of the “condemned” population, with their attorneys and family members raising questions about how the transition will affect their cases.

Jarvis Masters, 61, has been in prison for 42 years , sentenced to death for a crime he has long said he did not commit – sharpening a weapon used by someone else to kill a prison guard. Witnesses who named him have recanted, and others have confessed to making the weapon, prompting widespread outrage about the case and support for Masters, including from Oprah Winfrey . With his lawyers and loved ones in the Bay Area, a short drive away from San Quentin, he’s grown increasingly anxious about the prospect of being transferred, possibly hundreds of miles away to remote facilities difficult to access.

“My life depends on communication with my attorney,” he said by phone. “A lot of people’s sanity is hinged on that – being assured that their attorneys are doing everything possible to bring some positive resolution to their case.” After living in a solitary cell for decades, he said, the idea of having roommates and losing privacy also concerned him.

“There’s no place where I won’t feel I’m on death row and innocent,” Masters said. “You can put me in a place with a new basketball court or where I can wash my laundry or walk into a chow hall without shackles, but I’ll still be thinking about my status. To say we’re going to give prisoners a right to be without hand restraints – I feel like my whole life is in hand restraints.”

O n 17 March inside San Quentin, Newsom stood in front of incarcerated residents and suggested his Norway-style prison transformation could see death row turned into an “honor yard” focused on programming for residents: “We have to be in the homecoming business. It’s not just about rehabilitation … You want folks coming back feeling better.”

Norwegian prisons, which have been called the “most humane” in the world, have staff trained in social work , and incarcerated people have privileges, such as the ability to cook, private family visits and unlocked doors. It’s a far cry from San Quentin, which, while known for its arts programs and classes , is still an overcrowded, highly punitive American prison. And while Norway has no life sentences , in California, more than 5,700 people are sentenced to death or life without parole.

Some on death row hope that the transfers will bring them one step closer to leaving prison, especially as some state lawmakers push for reforms to undo some of the harshest prison terms. While individuals can be resentenced or have their death sentences overturned, it would require a major overhaul to enable mass resentencing, and repealing the death penalty as a form of punishment can only be done through a ballot measure.

CDCR and the governor’s office declined interview requests. A spokesperson for the governor pointed to Newsom’s comments in December saying that commutations for people with death sentences were “something that’s long been considered”.

Dana Simas, CDCR spokesperson, said in an email that it was possible some on death row could be transferred to other parts of San Quentin, but that housing placements would be made on a case-by-case basis related to an individual’s “security, medical, psychiatric, and program needs”. She said the transfer program would expand access to rehabilitative programming and job opportunities, which would allow people sentenced to death to pay restitution to victims.

There was no set timeline for the transfers to be completed, Simas said.

“Hopefully the powers that be will deem me worthy of a real second chance,” said Tracy Cain, 60, on death row since 1988. He is among the 40 death-sentenced people who went through the appeals process and had their death sentences affirmed by state and federal courts, meaning if a new governor resumed executions, he’d be at risk. While he would like to see his death sentence revoked, he said, he also fears the most likely alternative: “Life without the possibility of parole is a death sentence under a different name … When does the rehabilitation become as important as the punishment?”

Those already transferred off of death row said it was refreshing to be around people making plans for life after prison: “It gives us a little bit of hope,” said Rogers. “I’m in an environment where people are studying for parole hearings to go home. People are packing up and leaving to go to the streets, and that’s kind of exciting.”

Thomas said he had since had the chance to participate in self-help groups and now was a facilitator of a class where men process their traumas and engage in group therapy: “There’s some sense of normalcy as opposed to being just locked in a cage and regarded as trash and unworthy of anything. In a San Quentin cell by yourself, you keep all this stuff to yourself. But once I was in this circle and going through this class, I learned to open and share.”

Some of the men in the group are driven by their coming parole board hearings. Thomas, however, has had to find his own motivation: “This change I’ve made in my life, this growth, becoming a better person, it’s solely for me. That’s how I approach it. A lot of guys do this to be able to get out. But I don’t have those opportunities as of yet.”

D oolin’s mother, Donna Doolin-Larsen, said the uncertainty of the transfers weighed on them, but that her son tried to shield her from the darkest parts of death row: “Keith handles a lot on his own that I would never know happens. But Keith has always been positive. Anybody who has ever visited him has never seen him down. But that doesn’t mean he’s not down behind closed doors.”

Doolin said the hardest part of his incarceration was that he couldn’t be there for his loved ones when they were struggling – missing funerals and unable to help his 80-year-old mother through her worsening health problems. “Being physically handcuffed daily – that hurts,” he said. “But being physically helpless to help my family, that hurts the most.”

For now, Doolin’s holding on to hope that his conviction will be overturned, and that when he leaves San Quentin, he’ll be walking free, not heading to another prison.

He fantasizes about having a meal at a dinner table with family, using real silverware and plates, and drinking water with ice cubes. He dreams of living in an area with lots of grass, trees and open terrain. And he looks forward to never again wearing the blue color of prison uniforms.

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Death Row Records Launches the 'Death Row Experience' Virtual Museum for 30th Anniversary

The exhibit includes the story of the label’s rise plus their legendary artists and albums.

Death Row Records has launched the ' Death Row Experience' today, a virtual retrospective gallery that celebrates the 30th anniversary of the iconic label this year. The Los Angeles based company now owned by Entertainment One (eOne), catapulted gangster rap into mainstream consciousness and cultivated hip-hop culture that continues to influence artists today. The virtual experience was created by Flux88 Studios in partnership with TillaVision and is open to the public for all to enjoy. TillaVision is a digital designer and renowned crypto artist who has worked with Pop Smoke, Nas, Cardi B, DJ Khaled, JuiceWRLD, and Swae Lee to name a few.

Artists and albums include: All Eyez on Me by 2Pac, The Chronic by Dr. Dre, Doggystyle and Doggfather by Snoop Dogg, Necessary Roughness by Lady of Rage, Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound, "Above the Rim" film soundtrack and more. Follow the spotify playlist for the 30th anniversary collection and on Apple Music .

Several Death Row Records artists and their music such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and 2Pac continue to remain as relevant and influential as they did making history in the 1990s. The combination of larger-than-life artists and groundbreaking production helmed Death Row Records. The label stands as one the most successful stories in music history.

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“BACK ON DEATH ROW” CONCERT TOUR – SNOOP DOGG, WARREN G, THA EASTSIDEZ, RBX, THE LADY OF RAGE @ MECHANICS BANK ARENA, BAKERSFIELD

May 21, 2022 @ 8:00 am - 8:00 pm.

“BACK ON DEATH ROW” CONCERT TOUR

Snoop dogg, warren g, tha eastsidez, rbx, the lady of rage.

SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2022

Mechanics Bank Arena

1001 Truxtun Ave

Bakersfield, Ca 93301

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What it’s like on California’s Death Row

In the November election, California voters will face two very different ballot propositions focused on the future of the death penalty in the state. These propositions have increased public and media interest in capital punishment, and in response, California prison authorities have given journalists rare access to the state’s death row at San Quentin Prison.

Perched scenically on the north side of San Francisco Bay, not far from multi-million dollar homes, San Quentin has the largest death row in the country, with nearly 750 men awaiting execution. Women sentenced to death are held at Chowchilla Prison in California’s Central Valley.

To better understand day-to-day life on death row, KCRW joined a tour of San Quentin. We were allowed to speak to any prisoner we wanted, provided the inmates signed a release. But we were required to wear knife-resistant vests meant meant to protect a person from makeshift blades that could be wielded by a death row inmate.

After passing through security checkpoints to get to San Quentin’s death row facilities, the sheer number of people awaiting execution in California became much less abstract. During a regular midday recreation break, hundreds of death row inmates talked and milled around an outdoor exercise yard.

As we stood on the other side of a security fence, we were approached by inmate Anthony Bankston, who was calm and friendly as he described what got him on death row.

“Im here for homicide. Two murders,” said Bankston.

The murders, committed in 1991, stemmed from a gang conflict in the Los Angeles area. Unlike many people we talked to on death row, Bankston readily admitted his guilt.

“Oh, absolutely. I did terrible things brother, terrible things that I’m not proud of.”

Like Bankston and the other men in the exercise yard, inmates who don’t misbehave on death row are allowed to socialize outside their cells. They’re also permitted to have small luxuries, like television sets, radios, books and paper. They can also make monitored calls of up to one-hour in length to their lawyers and family. That’s done when phones on casters are wheeled up to their cells.

But condemned inmates who attack guards or other prisoners are locked up in San Quentin’s Adjustment Center. It’s a kind of death row within death row, where inmates are allowed fewer privileges and face more security. Adjustment Center prisoners aren’t allowed to keep electronics in their cells and must be escorted by two guards instead of one when walking San Quentin’s grounds.

When Adjustment Center inmates are let outside for exercise, each one is kept inside an individual steel cage. Similar to what you might imagine seeing in an old fashioned zoo. The cages are meant to protect the prisoners from each other and insure the safety of prison guards.

It’s here that we met Joseph Perez, convicted of murdering a woman during a home invasion robbery in the Bay Area.

“It’s a miserable ass life in prison,” said Perez. “Bering surrounded by a fucking concrete coffin, concrete and steel. Surrounded by people you wouldn’t communicate with on the street.”

But for all of the misery and hardship on California’s death row, there’s something important to remember: few people are actually executed.  Since 1979, only 13 people have been put to death in the state and no one has executed in since 2006.

There are many different reasons for the lack of executions. They include a long constitutional challenge to California’s capital punishment system; legal disputes over the use of lethal injection as the preferred method of execution; and perhaps, most importantly, just how slowly death penalty cases work their way through California’s legal system, particularly when they are being appealed.

Death row inmate Joseph Perez has experienced the molasses-like process firsthand. He’s been at San Quentin for more than 15 years and is still fighting his conviction through the appeals process with no conclusion in sight.

“We don’t get attorney for at least five years,” said Perez. “Then, once you get attorneys it takes another possible 10 years for everything, for your records to be corrected, for your attorneys to file all their motions and all that. Then after that, it take another five, six, seven years to even hear your arguments.”

Perez, who is 45, said he’s more afraid of dying of old at San Quentin as he fights his legal battle than being executed.

“Yeah, I don’t want to be an old, decrepit man walking the prison yard,” said Perez as he leaned against his metal exercise cage.

To fix what’s widely acknowledged to be a broken capital punishment system in California, there are two competing propositions on the state’s November ballot.

Passage of Proposition 62, which is supported by many civil rights groups, would end the death penalty and replace it with life without the possibility of parole. It would also be retroactive and apply to prisoners already on death row.

Supporters of Proposition 62 argue state sanctioned executions are morally wrong and say the existence of capital punishment might mean innocent people could get executed by mistake.

They also say ending the death penalty would save California about $150 million a year. That money is now spent litigating death sentence cases and operating San Quentin’s death row.

But Proposition 66 supporters, many of whom are from law enforcement, say “mend it, don’t end it” when it comes to the death penalty in California. They say some crimes are so heinous, death is the only just and punishment.

If it’s passed, Proposition 66 would reduce costs and speed up the process by putting a cap on the number of petitions challenging death row convictions and putting a time limit on death penalty reviews by the courts.

Like people outside the prison, the hundreds locked up on death row also argue about the utility and morality of California’s death penalty.

Death Row inmate Anthony Bankston, who admits his guilt, said he’ll accept whatever proposition voters decide to approve in November, the one that ends the death penalty or keeps it with changes.

“They are both acceptable to me,” said Bankston. “They are both acceptable because of the heinous things I’ve done. I’ve done things that law enforcement don’t even know about.”

But at the Adjustment Center cell block, speaking through a solid metal and plexiglass door, inmate Darrell Smith echoed another view on death row. He said, too often, race and class are deciding factors in who receives the death penalty and who doesn’t.

“I do not believe in state sanctioned murder,” said Smith. “The reality is that it’s arbitrarily applied to black people, Latino people, and poor people in general. I know this is a cliched complaint that you hear in advocating against the death penalty, but it’s true.”

But whether California ends the death or keeps it with changes, the inmates on San Quentin’s death row know they’ll likely be here for the rest of their lives, whether their lives end by natural causes or lethal injection. Most prisoners learn to settle in for the long-haul, and they even try new activities and hobbies. Writing is especially popular with the inmates.

“I’ve got two death row autobiographies. I’ve got my gang autobiography. And my death row cookbook,” said inmate Albert Jones.

Jones, who is on death row for murdering a man in Riverside County, collected favorite recipes from his fellow condemned inmates and then self-published a book. It also features the last meals the men dream of having if they ever get executed. Jones has included his own.

“I think my last meal would be collard greens, corn bread, ribs, triple chocolate cake, a slice of banana pudding cream pie, and a glass of milk with five ice cubes,” said Jones.

Jones has had plenty of time to think about food and writing. He’s been at San Quentin for 17 years, all in the same cell which is right next door to a cell that’s been turned into a makeshift interdenominational chapel.

As California’s condemned watch the years pass, California’s death row continues to grow as more people get sentenced to death, but no one gets executed. San Quentin officials are moving non-death row inmates to other cellblocks to make room for the condemned.

Death row’s newest residents include a 25-year-old man convicted of a double murder in Oakland and Lonnie David Franklin, better known as the notorious Grim Sleeper Murder, who was sentenced to death for killing 9 women and 1 girl.

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Snoop Dogg Hails TDE as a ‘Better Version’ of Death Row at REVOLT Summit L.A.

By Shirley Ju

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The REVOLT Summit touched down in Los Angeles this weekend (Oct. 25 – 27), following the success of the conference in Atlanta just six weeks prior. Presented by AT&T, the confab took place at The Magic Box in downtown L.A. and featured dozens of panels and performances, bringing to the stages such hip-hop greats as Snoop Dogg , Killer Mike, Vince Staples , Master P and Revolt Media founder Sean “P. Diddy Combs,” wearing a Crenshaw jersey in a sign of respect for the west coast.

L.A.’s rap roots was a common theme of the many discussions about the dominance of west coast powerhouses like TDE, home to Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Schoolboy Q.  Run by Top Dawg, which Snoop commented was a “better version” of Death Row Records. Punch later tweeted that he was “humbled” by the compliment.

Snoop Dogg sat on stage in a room full of ppl and said we (TDE) are a better version of Death Row Records. Humbled. 🙏🏽 — Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) October 27, 2019

Another topic that saw much analysis was the blueprint to success/ REVOLT CEO Roma Khanna highlighted the importance of ownership, telling those gathered, “We’re trying to be a platform for you to connect, to learn, to hear from those people who have succeeded, but also how they succeeded and their journey.”

A look at the influence and impact of hip-hop in tech, entrepreneurship and entertainment was also explored from multiple vantage points. Other highlights included a live taping of “State of the Culture,” a conversation with Master P and his son Romeo, a panel of today’s hottest producers including Murda Beatz, Hit-Boy and Sounwave and Diddy’s talk with Staples.

Popular on Variety

Variety was in attendance for the monumental weekend and came away with these five takeaways.

Killer Mike preaches politics like no other.

Day one of the summit kicked off with the Power & Politics panel featuring hip-hop artist and activist Killer Mike and former TMZ host Van Lathan. Killer Mike, whose real name is Michael Render, first came onto the music scene after appearing on OutKast’s 2000 album “Stankonia” (on “Snappin’ and Trappin’”) and going on to win a Grammy for his feature on “The Whole World.” More recently, he’s been traveling the world shutting down stages as one-half of Run The Jewels, alongside rapper/producer El-P.

The Atlanta native has never been one to hold his tongue when it comes to social activism, racism, and social action in general. For that, he even received his own Netflix show, described as a funny and provocative series in which he “puts his revolutionary ideas about achieving social change into action.”

As Mike took the stage, the crowd exploded with a standing ovation. Off the rip, Mike reminded all that it was only a half century ago that his people broke free of slavery. Said Mike: “Can I be frank? I’m tired of n–as complaining. My entire life has been defined as the struggle against something. Black people have only been free in America for 55 years. My parents, your parents were born in apartheid. When you talk about apartheid, it’s a certain seriousness … [for] 55 years of freedom, we operated from a place of fear.”

Connecting the then and now, Mike continued: “If blacks really understood the power of the local vote…  your congress members would be more afraid of you. I’ve seen Bernie Sanders take $27 donations and use that to gather a movement. For me, it’s less about politics and more about telling the free people ‘you’re free’ — now let’s move like it.”

The realness in Mike’s own story connected with the audience. “I’m talking about black people like me raised by grandparents’ grandchildren of slaves,” he said. “.My grandmama raised me until I was 10, she influenced me directly. Her mother was born into slavery, that’s how close we are to slavery.”

Mike recently sat with Bernie Sanders to pick his brain about everything from healthcare to education, and made mention of Diddy wanting him to run for office, to which the man himself immediately stood up in the front row to applaud Killer Mike directly.

TDE is still on top.

Among the most highly-anticipated sessions was the Top Dawg Entertainment panel moderated by Snoop Dogg, who commented that today’s TDE is a “better version” of Death Row Records. On the agenda: how TDE rose to mainstream success by spearheading the careers of Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, SZA, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul and more. The panel featured Jay Rock from city of Watts, Moosa of TDE artist development, who manages Zacari and ScHoolboy Q, Brandon “Big B” Tiffith and Terrence “Punch” Henderson, president of TDE.

Punch began by bringing it back to 1997 and early days in the studio. “Top brought us to the studio in Carson, we built and built until about 2004,” he said. “Jay Rock came first, then Kendrick came, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy… that was the start right there.”

Moosa added that he was just a fly on the wall at the time, and much younger than everyone. “I actually rapped first,” he said. “I went to the studio one night and Top and Punch had my music playing in front of everyone. I quit my rap career from there and went into management. If you’re not ready to play your music in front of a room full of people, you’re not ready, period.”

When it comes to what it takes to make it inside TDE, Punch shed some light, noting: “It’s different for everybody. Me personally, it’s originality. Something that’s different and stands out. I’m looking at work ethic after that. You can be great but if you don’t work, that’s the worst thing in the world. You can’t get that going.”

Jay Rock confirmed, “That’s real talk. All work always, overall talent.”

Music managers  need to be good at everything.

Moderated by Roc Nation’s Lenny S, a panel on “Managing the Talent, Brand and Business” featured some of music’s most well-respected managers: Jamil Davis (G-Eazy), Courtney Stewart (Khalid), Dre London (Post Malone) and Paris Cole (Dreamville/Ari Lennox).

Stewart, who works with R&B superstar Khalid, stated that the most important aspect to the relationship is “an artist that has true pride. In 2019 going on to 2020, it’s a huge responsibility for artists. It’s not just about the music, you have to identity with fans. You have to have a strategy to connect with people on social media. It’s a real job for an artist outside of creating in the studio. You can’t just have dope records.” Stewart recalled Kylie Jenner posting Khalid’s song on Snapchat and how it gave them the push they needed as new fans arrived from all over the world. Afterwards, they essentially had to play catch up because of the how fast the internet moves.

Dre London (pictured below), who played a pivotal role in the rise of Post Malone added: “It takes a LOT to get to where we are. Signing to a label doesn’t just make it happen. I remember 2016 we went on tour with Fetty, it was our first tour. We had 59 shows. I couldn’t be on the road everyday, it was nonstop. Your artist is up at 3 a.m., 4 a.m. — when artists sleep, you need to take care of what needs to be taken care of. It’s hard to find that medium.”

G-Eazy’s manager Jamil Davis also gave an interesting perspective, emphasizing the importance of “just being there for artists.” Said Davis: “We’re their psychiatrists, their babysitters, everything. The hard part is making them realize we’re all on the same time, ‘cause sometimes we fight.”

Mustard and Ty Dolla $ign’s success is a true Westside story.

Paving the way for hip-hop in L.A., Mustard and Ty Dolla $ign took the stage for a panel moderated by radio personality Big Boy. The three dove deep into what the West Coast means to them musically and culturally, speaking of their humble beginnings, the grind, and giving  advice to those who aspire to follow.

Mustard made a point to pay tribute to the Bay Area, too. “Yeah, there’s a West Coast sound,” he said. “We got the Bay that’s not that far away. I’m heavily influenced by the Bay, grew up to Too Short, Rick Rock Beats, The Federation, all that. All of the West Coast influences me, but we put our twist on it. We might have an R&B song that has a West Coast flavor, I might go do something random with YG but it’s one big sound.”

Ty Dolla $ign also name-checked West Coast veterans, from Death Row artists to newer stuff like Nipsey Hussle, Roddy Ricch and SiR, among others.

Giving props to Dr. Dre and DJ Quik, the 29-year-old Mustard said, “I’m not quite as good as mixing as Dre yet, I’m trying to get to that spot.”

Mustard honestly recounted how he first entered the game, signing a co-publishing deal for “Rack City,” which got him on his feet. From the success of that 2012 single with Tyga, he was able to take care of his son, his now fiance, and so much more. But he wasn’t able to get out of that deal.

“What you don’t know about co-pub deal, you don’t get that percentage back,” said Mustard. “For the last few years, I’ve had admin deals in which I own everything of mine. All those songs we did in the co-pub deal, I sold those. For me, the better thing was to better myself and sell that piece of catalog for 15 times. If you’re making a million dollars a year, you make 15 million dollars. I sold that, now I own everything. From publishing to my record label, in which I did a 50/50 deal split with Universal.”

Ty also gave some valuable words of advice, telling the audience. “Just be you, stick to your guns. Don’t try to be like nobody else, that’s what’s going to be special. That’s what’s going to last. Anybody can make a song at this point, but the stuff that lasts is when it really comes from the chest. When it’s really you.”

5) Creative freedom is a rare thing, but shouldn’t be.

A conversation featuring the forces behind Keep Cool, which is home to R&B acts Normani, Lucky Daye and VanJess., featured founder Tunji Balogun and Right Hand Music Group’s Courtney Stewart. Moderated by Phylicia Fant, co-head of Urban Music at Columbia Records, the panel centered around how and why they built the company, along with a look on the acts they signed.

Balogun stressed the importance of being a fan first, detailing his own experience starting out as an artist and eventually transitioning to SVP A&R at RCA Records. Said Balogun: “The number one thing I learned is never to underestimate anybody. You never know what relationship is going to come, what may yield the next best track, the next best artist, whatever. Personally, a big part of my success is being a good person, and that energy coming back from people I met along the way — either they want to show me things or bring stuff to me.”

Courtney Stewart actually got his start working with Bobby Valentino and even working on Lil Wayne’s standout 2008 single “Mrs. Officer.” During this journey, he picked up Khalid. As Stewart recounted: “Since 2005, it’s really been a long road. Just figuring out… the game is forever changing. When I first came, it was all about physical CDs, in-store, etc. Now we’re in the digital world. It’s really important to stay ahead of the curve. Especially as a manager, I never worked at a label. I never got a check. I never been on payroll. I have an entrepreneur’s spirit. As an entrepreneur, you have to realize it’s peaks and valleys in this business. You have to be two steps ahead. We have to figure out what’s next after streaming, because it’s something.”

The motto of Keep Cool is “the creative safe haven.” “It’s a place where artists can feel safe and can know their visions aren’t going to be compromised, that we’re going to fight to keep the integrity of what they do,” said Balogun. “There’s no boundaries, no box anymore. The ceiling is as high as you want it to bea s an artist if you’re working with us. It’s our job to protect what makes an artist special, while finding opportunities to tell the story as much as possible.”

Photos by Getty Images for REVOLT

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Revisiting the untold story of Death Row Records

In this episode of “LA Stories,” host Giselle Fernandez revisits her conversation with Michael "Harry-O" Harris, who was once known as “the Godfather” in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s.

🎧 Hear the LA Stories: Unfiltered podcast version of this interview 

Listen at the top of this page or on your favorite podcast app: Apple | Spotif y | Googl e | Amazon

Working with gangs like the Bloods and Crips, plus the Colombian cartel, Harris was in charge of a nationwide drug trafficking operation that brought in nearly $2 million daily.

Harris says he tried to do right by his community by using the money to invest in local businesses. Despite his good intentions, his past caught up to him, and he was arrested not only for drug trafficking, but for attempted murder — a crime he says he didn't commit.

The victim later recanted, and the attempted murder charges were dropped, but Harris continued to spend time behind bars for the drug charge — for a total of 33 years.

“I have to take responsibility for my part,” he said. “The day that you take responsibility for what you do is the day your life starts to change immediately.”

Harris opens up to Fernandez about his time in prison. He not only created mentorship programs for fellow inmates, but he also helped build one of the most prolific music labels in the world.

He teamed up with Suge Knight to co-found Death Row Records, and the label helped launch the careers of legendary hip-hop artists such as Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur.

Harris tells Fernandez about the highs and lows of the working with Death Row Records, which he helped manage from behind bars.

“One of the things that rap provides for communities of color, it provided an avenue to share our stories,” he said. “I noticed one thing that a lot of people had in common: Music soothes even the people that you think that cannot be soothed.”

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In 2021, in a surprise pardon by then-President Donald Trump, Harris was granted his freedom after spending 33 years behind bars. While many thought Death Row Records had shut down permanently, Harris went right back to work once freed, partnering with Snoop Dogg as the COO of the all-new Death Row Records.

Together, they plan to rebuild Death Row, branding it as an NFT label and operating in the metaverse. Harris hopes to celebrate young voices from communities of color and give them a platform to share their stories.

Additionally, Harris is building a network called Philanthropy TV in order to shine a light on the extraordinary stories of people giving back. For Harris, this is a chance to right the wrongs he committed in the past — and a chance at redemption.

"I'm always looking for that light in other people, no matter what race they are," he said. "And I think that's what's important. I want to be the person that they say, 'It's a better place since he was here.'"

Watch "LA Stories with Giselle Fernandez" at 9 p.m. every Monday on Spectrum News 1.

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Address Death Row Records (formerly) 8200 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA

Death Row Records is the most famous rap label in the world. An institution whose name alone evokes the sounds of some of the most influential figures in the business.

Founded in 1991 by Suge Knight and Dr. Dre, Death Row Records relies on the popularity of the latter to gain recognition and attract talent. Several classics such as The Chronic by Dr. Dre, Doggystyle by Snoop Dogg or All Eyez on Me by 2Pac were released during the golden age of the label. The departure of Dr. Dre in the mid-1990s diminished the company’s power. It eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2006. Nevertheless, even today, its address on Wilshire Boulevard remains mythical because it is associated with a number of albums that have long since entered the rap pantheon.

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Cult! music: 100 mythical music places [French Edition]

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Head to Melbourne, Australia for a stroll along AC/DC Lane before crossing the iconic Abbey Road pedestrian crossing in the company of The Beatles . Visit Janis Joplin ‘s home in San Francisco and find out how Johnny Cash ended up playing his greatest hits to a crowd of prisoners in San Quentin. Travel the winding roads of Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and stop in Japan to catch up with Deep Purple , Phil Collins and Daft Punk . Drive down the Tina Turner Highway before entering some of the most legendary studios in music history. Go back to the troubled origins of Billie Holiday and make a pact with Robert Johnson at the famous crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Embark immediately on an exhilarating world tour with some of music’s most iconic bands and artists! Relive the Jimi Hendrix concert on the Isle of Wight before paying tribute to Bob Marley in Jamaica.

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One condemned inmate kills another in rare death row slaying at San Quentin prison

October 6, 2018 / 8:05 AM EDT / CBS/AP

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- One condemned inmate killed another Friday, the first slaying of a death row inmate in California in more than 20 years, officials said.

Jonathan Fajardo, 30, was stabbed in the chest and neck with an inmate-made weapon. The stabbing took place in a recreational yard of the cell house that holds the bulk of condemned inmates at San Quentin State Prison, said corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton. Luis Rodriguez, 34, is considered the suspect, she said. 

Investigators were trying to determine a motive and how the suspect obtained, or was able to make, the weapon, Thornton said. 

Such slayings are common in California prisons but rare on death row, where the last one occurred in 1997.

"It's very unusual," said San Francisco State University associate professor Amy Smith, who studies capital punishment and the psychological impacts of death row. "It's not supposed to happen, of course."

There is high security on death row, were every inmate is housed separately. Most are allowed to congregate in small groups in the exercise yard where Fajardo was killed, Thornton said.

Smith said that statistically, prisoners serving life sentences and "folks who are on 'the row' generally have the lowest levels of prison violence, even though it would seem that they might do anything because they have the worst penalty. In fact, they actually have very, very low incidences of violence in prison." 

San Quentin State Prison is California's oldest prison. It opened in 1852 and houses 4,398 inmates,  CBS SF Bay Area reports.

Fajardo was admitted from Los Angeles County in May 2011. He was awaiting execution on two counts of murder in the county in what was considered a hate crime. He also received seven life sentences. 

Fajardo was identified as a Latino gang member who killed a 14-year-old black girl in a racially motivated shooting. He was also condemned for the stabbing death two weeks later of a man who prosecutors said was killed because fellow gang members believed he might be cooperating with police.

Rodriguez was admitted from Los Angeles County in August 2008. He is awaiting execution on two counts of murder. Local media reports identified Rodriguez as a member of another Latino gang convicted of killing two men from a rival gang. He was already suspected of another murder that resulted in a life sentence.

No one has been executed in California since 2006, though voters in 2016 passed an initiative that is attempting to speed up capital punishment. Far more condemned inmates on the nation's largest death row have died of natural causes or suicide than have been executed since California reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

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California Moves to Dismantle Nation's Largest Death Row

While other states like illinois have abolished executions, california is merging its condemned inmates into the general prison population with no expectation that any will face execution anytime in the near future, by don thompson • published january 31, 2022, what to know.

• California, which last carried out an execution in 2006, is one of 28 states that maintain death rows, along with the U.S. government
• The new plan is turning on its head a 2016 voter-approved initiative intended to speed up executions by capitalizing on one provision that allowed inmates to be moved off death row
• The ballot measure approved six years ago also required condemned inmates to participate in prison jobs, with 70% of the money going for restitution to their victims, and corrections officials said that’s their goal with the transfers

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who three years ago placed a moratorium on executions, now is moving to dismantle the United States' largest death row by moving all condemned inmates to other prisons within two years.

The goal is to turn the section at San Quentin State Prison into a "positive, healing environment.”

“We are starting the process of closing death row to repurpose and transform the current housing units into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation,” corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters told The Associated Press.

Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.

California, which last carried out an execution in 2006, is one of 28 states that maintain death rows, along with the U.S. government, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. While other states like Illinois have abolished executions, California is merging its condemned inmates into the general prison population with no expectation that any will face execution anytime in the near future.

Oregon similarly transferred its much smaller condemned population to other inmate housing two years ago.

Life Without Parole Is Replacing the Death Penalty – But the Legal Defense System Hasn't Kept Up

Virginia, With 2nd-Most Executions, Outlaws Death Penalty

Newsom, a Democrat, imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019 and shut down the state’s execution chamber at San Quentin, north of San Francisco. Now his administration is turning on its head a 2016 voter-approved initiative intended to speed up executions by capitalizing on one provision that allowed inmates to be moved off death row.

Corrections officials began a voluntary two-year pilot program in January 2020 that as of Friday had moved 116 of the state’s 673 condemned male inmates to one of seven other prisons that have maximum security facilities and are surrounded by lethal electrified fences.

They intend to submit permanent proposed regulations within weeks that would make the transfers mandatory and “allow for the repurposing of all death row housing units,” Waters said.

The ballot measure approved six years ago also required condemned inmates to participate in prison jobs, with 70% of the money going for restitution to their victims, and corrections officials said that’s their goal with the transfers. By the end of last year, more than $49,000 in restitution had been collected under the pilot program.

Newsom’s proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 seeks $1.5 million to find new uses for the vacant condemned housing.

It notes that death row and its supporting activities are in the same area as facilities used for rehabilitation programs for medium-security San Quentin inmates. The money would be used to hire a consultant to “develop options for (the) space focused on creating a positive, healing environment to provide increased rehabilitative, educational and health care opportunities.”

San Quentin’s never-used $853,000 execution chamber is in a separate area of the prison, and there are no plans to “repurpose” that area, Waters said.

California voters supported the death penalty in 2012 and 2016, though legislative opponents have said they hope to put the issue before voters again in coming years. An advisory panel to Newsom and lawmakers, the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, in November became the latest to recommend repealing the death penalty, calling it “beyond repair.”

Under the state’s transfer program, condemned inmates moved to other prisons can be housed in solitary or disciplinary confinement if officials decide they cannot be safely housed with others, although they are supposed to be interspersed with other inmates. Inmates on death row are housed one to a cell, but the transferred inmates can be housed with others if it’s deemed safe.

“There have been no safety concerns, and no major disciplinary issues have occurred,” Waters said.

When it comes to jobs and other rehabilitation activities, condemned inmates outside death row are treated similarly to inmates serving sentences of life without parole. That includes a variety of jobs such as maintenance and administrative duties, according to prison officials.

The condemned inmates are counted more often and are constantly supervised during activities, officials said.

Under current rules, condemned inmates can be transferred unless they are in restricted housing for disciplinary reasons, have pending charges, or have been found guilty of certain disciplinary offenses in the past five years.

But they also are “carefully screened to determine whether they can safely participate in the program,” according to the department. That includes things like each inmate’s security level, medical, psychiatric and other needs, their behavior, safety concerns and notoriety.

Female condemned inmates are housed at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. They can transfer to less restrictive housing within the same prison, and eight of the 21 have done so.

The men can be moved to California Correctional Institution; California Medical Facility; California State Prison, Corcoran; Centinela State Prison; Kern Valley State Prison; Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility; or Salinas Valley State Prison.

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Transfer of San Quentin death row inmates to Chino prison prompts safety concerns

Previous coveragae: san quentin prison to transform into rehabilitation facility.

The inmates serving death sentences at San Quentin State Prison will be moved elsewhere in the California penitentiary system, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced, and it will be renamed the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

CHINO, Calif. - More than two dozen condemned inmates from San Quentin's death row have been transferred to the California Institution for Men in Chino , the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said, with more on the way this week.

It's part of the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program, which marks the closure of segregated death row units at San Quentin and the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, according to the CDCR.

Chino Mayor Eunice Ulloa said in part she was "alarmed" by the state's decision to transfer "the worst of the worst prisoners" close to schools, homes, and businesses in Chino. 

"The Department of Corrections needs to immediately remove these horrifically violent offenders from CIM and house them in a prison that is capable of confining people who are sentenced to death," she added. 

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 

• California to move more than 700 condemned inmates off death row
• Court orders California to cut San Quentin inmate population by half
• Double murderer who killed two teens in LA to be released from San Quentin

According to the CDCR, 15 death row inmates are currently being housed in the Chino prison, and another eight are expected to arrive this week. There is no known cap on the number of condemned inmates that can be housed there. 

Officials said the Chino Police Department is scheduling a meeting with local officials to discuss the safety concerns brought on by the arrival of the death row inmates.

The program does not change the inmates' sentences, but rather enables the CDCR to "repurpose existing facilities for education and restorative justice purposes."

Additionally, CDCR's initiative has expanded from eight to 24 institutions eligible to house permanent transfers from death row. 

The state hasn’t executed anyone since 2006 but voters have continued to back the death penalty even as they reduced many drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and allowed for the earlier parole of thousands of inmates.

Corrections officials dismantled the state’s newly built $853,000 execution chamber at San Quentin per Gov. Gavin Newsom’ s direction.

Prison administrators and researchers plan to evaluate the program over the two years, tracking the number of participants, the number with jobs, inmates’ behavior, and any effect on prison safety.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Aerosmith farewell tour is back on with new L.A. date, months after Steven Tyler injury

Don't want to miss a thing from Aerosmith's farewell tour? The rock group's fans are in luck.

Aerosmith announced Wednesday that its Peace Out tour is officially back on, with an updated slate of shows — including three Southern California stops — set to kick off in September. The rock group's tour launched early last September, but was quickly put on hold after frontman Steven Tyler injured his vocal cords.

Less than a month into its Peace Out circuit, Aerosmith announced in a September 2023 statement that Tyler's injury — a fractured larynx — was "more serious than initially thought." As a result, the group said it would postpone its remaining stops until 2024.

"I promise we will be back as soon as we can," Tyler, 76, said in a missive shared to the group's Facebook page last year.

The Grammy-winning "Dream On" group will relaunch the remainder of its tour Sept. 20, with a newly added show at Pittsburgh's PPG Paints Arena. The group also added a Sept. 23 concert at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center.

In the winter, Aerosmith will rock its way to California for shows in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. First, the "Walk This Way" group will play San Francisco's Chase Center on Nov. 30, then San Jose's SAP Center on Dec. 4 and Inglewood's Kia Forum on Dec. 7, almost exactly a year later than initially scheduled.

The Peace Out tour is now scheduled to end on Feb. 26, 2025, at the Keybank Center in Buffalo, N.Y. The full list of tour dates can be found on Aerosmith's website .

For all shows except its first one back, Aerosmith will be joined by "Remedy" rockers the Black Crowes, now on their own headlining tour behind a new album, "Happiness Bastards," and playing L.A.'s Greek Theatre on Friday.

On top of his vocal injury, Tyler was sued in November 2023 for allegedly kissing and groping a teenage girl twice in 1975 when he was 27 and she was 17. In February, a U.S. district judge dismissed the lawsuit.

"We agree with the judge's reasoning, and are grateful for this result on behalf of our client," David Long-Daniels, a lawyer for Tyler, told Reuters in February.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .

Crime and Public Safety | Death row inmate transfers to Chino prison spur…

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Crime and public safety | death row inmate transfers to chino prison spur safety concerns with mayor, police, the state 'needs to immediately remove these horrifically violent offenders' because of deteriorated conditions at the prison, says mayor eunice ulloa.

The transfer of more than two dozen condemned inmates from San Quentin’s death row to the California Institution for Men in Chino under a new state program has prompted outcry from city officials, who are urging the state to send them elsewhere because of safety concerns.

As of Wednesday, April 17, 26 condemned inmates are being housed at CIM under the Condemned Inmate Transfer Program launched earlier this month , which marked the closure of segregated death row units at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“I am alarmed that the Department of Corrections is transferring these dangerous inmates to one of the oldest prisons in the state,” Mayor Eunice Ulloa said in a news release. “The Department of Corrections needs to immediately remove these horrifically violent offenders from CIM and house them in a prison that is capable of confining people who are sentenced to death.”

CIM houses the third highest number of condemned inmates recently transferred under the program, with California State Prison, Sacramento and California Health Care Facility, Stockton housing the highest numbers at 31 and 35, respectively, according to the CDCR.

All the inmates are being transferred to prisons with electrified fences, and their condemned status has not changed. Further inmate transfers will be conducted in phases and are expected to be completed this summer, according to the CDCR.

Inmates participating in the program will be designated as “close custody” for a minimum of five years, and all activities will be permitted only during daylight hours, according to the CDCR.

Proposition 66 mandate

In compliance with Proposition 66 , approved by voters in November 2016, the CDCR began relocating condemned inmates earlier this month to 24 prisons statewide so they could participate in rehabilitative programs and jobs to pay restitution to their victims. The program also allows the CDCR to repurpose existing prison facilities for educational and restorative justice purposes.

It is unclear how many more condemned prisoners are expected to be transferred to Chino and when. CDCR spokesperson Terri Hardy said the department does not discuss movement of incarcerated people due to safety and security issues.

There are 641 condemned inmates in California’s prison system. Since Feb. 26, 189 condemned inmates at San Quentin and 20 from the women’s facility in Chowchilla have been transferred to other prisons under the transfer program, according to the CDCR.

Safety concerns

Chino’s elected and public safety officials have sounded an alarm, citing safety concerns at the prison that have spanned more than a decade, including prior escapes and deteriorating conditions that were noted in an Office of Inspector General report and audit in 2008.

“Considering the Department of Corrections’ lack of investment in the upkeep and maintenance of CIM, I am appalled that they would choose to house the worst of the worst prisoners in our state in such close proximity to residences, schools, and businesses,” Ulloa said in her statement.

In its news release, the city noted a history of escapes at the prison, including the 1983 escape of Kevin Cooper, who murdered three members of a Chino Hills family and a neighbor boy following his escape, and the Jan. 14, 2018, escape of inmate Michael Garrett , 33, who was caught the following day in Encinitas. Garrett had just started a five-year sentence for burglary and auto theft.

Chino police Lt. Aaron Kelliher said Garrett’s escape was attributed to a “number of factors” including a defective alarm system designed to notify corrections officers when a prisoner was “on the fence.”

“It had been defective for three years,” Kelliher said of the alarm system in a telephone interview.

Of the transfers to Chino, which opened in 1941, Kelliher said: “They are continuing to add to the prison population in a prison that should have been closed down due to its age and deterioration.”

Deteriorating conditions

In its 2008 report, the Office of Inspector General noted several safety concerns at the prison: dilapidated housing, failing plumbing, leaking roofs and hazardous materials in need of removal — all of which created an environment that posed safety and security risks for staff and inmates.

In its companion audit, the OIG said the prison had fallen into an unacceptable state of repair due to years of neglect, and would require $28 million annually just to maintain the facility in its current “poor condition.”

Many improvement projects at the prison remained unfunded, according to the audit, and the OIG further warned that if funding was not dramatically increased, conditions would deteriorate to a level necessitating the prison’s demolition by 2014.

Officials at CDCR could not immediately provide information on how much has been spent on improvements at the prison since 2008.

Meeting with warden

Kelliher, along with other members of his department as well as members of the Chino Hills sheriff’s station, the Ontario Police Department and the Chino Valley Fire District, met with CIM Warden Travis Pennington and his staff on Tuesday, April 16, to discuss safety concerns and operations at the prison under the new program, Kelliher said.

“It went well. They committed to continue working with us to find solutions that will allay some of our concerns,” he said in a telephone interview. He said he could not go into specifics on what was discussed because it involved confidential operational procedures at the prison. But Kelliher did say the issues discussed surrounded operations and the transportation of inmates.

He said prison administrators committed to keeping law enforcement and fire officials updated on any security enhancements and other pertinent issues surrounding operations at CIM.

Rocky history

The city has clashed with the CDCR in the past over its plans to build a 48,000-square-foot, 50-bed mental health care facility at the prison.

In June 2019, the city and three other agencies — the city of Chino Hills, the Chino Valley Independent Fire District and San Bernardino County — sued the CDCR, alleging it failed to consider potential security and public safety concerns when it approved plans to build the facility.

The lawsuit alleged the project’s environmental impact report was based on an inadequate description of the prison’s physical condition, lacked detailed project plans, and did not fully address potential impacts the project might have on public safety, traffic, air quality and other infrastructure.

In February 2021, a judge ruled in favor of Chino and the other petitioners on two issues challenging the environmental impact report. City spokesperson Matthew Bramlett said the CDCR subsequently revised its environmental impact report.

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Dickey Betts of Allman Brothers Band Honored by Ex-Bandmates After His Death: 'You Will Be Forever Remembered'

"With deep sadness the Allman Brothers Band learned today that founding member Dickey Betts has passed away peacefully in his home," said the group

Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty

Dickey Betts ' ex-fellow Allman Brothers Band members are honoring the late singer-songwriter and guitarist.

After news of Betts' death at age 80 was confirmed by his family on April 18, his former "Ramblin' Man" bandmates reacted with a heartfelt statement issued to PEOPLE in a press release.

"With deep sadness the Allman Brothers Band learned today that founding member Dickey Betts has passed away peacefully in his home in Sarasota, Florida, following a period of declining health," wrote the Grammy-winning band, co-founded by brothers Duane and Gregg Allman with an original lineup also featuring Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson.

Jeffrey Mayer/Getty

"Dickey wrote quintessential Brothers songs including 'Blue Sky,' 'Rambling Man,' 'Jessica,' 'In Memory of Elizabeth Reed' and many others," continued the statement. "His extraordinary guitar playing alongside guitarist Duane Allman created a unique dual guitar signature sound that became the signature sound of the genre known as Southern Rock."

"He was passionate in life, be it music, songwriting, fishing, hunting, boating, golf, karate or boxing. Dickey was all in on and excelled at anything that caught his attention," the musicians said.

"Betts joins his brothers, Duane Allman, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman, as well as ABB crew, members Twiggs Lyndon, Joe Dan Petty, Red Dog, Kim Payne and Mike Callahan in that old Winnebago in the sky touring the world taking their music to all who will listen," they added.

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

"Our condolences to his immediate family Donna, Duane & Lisa, Christy & Frank, Jessica and Kim. Play on Brother Dickey, you will be forever remembered and deeply missed," concluded the statement, attributed to "Allman Brothers Band, Family and Crew."

Betts played with the band from 1969 through 2000, when he claimed to have been fired. However, in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone , Johanson alleged he actually quit the group.

News of the musician's death came with a statement on his official Instagram page from his family alongside a throwback photo of Betts.

Clayton Call/Redferns

"It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that the Betts family announce the peaceful passing of Forrest Richard 'Dickey' Betts (December 12, 1943 - April 18, 2024) at the age of 80 years old," the caption began. "The legendary performer, songwriter, bandleader and family patriarch passed away earlier today at his home in Osprey, FL., surrounded by his family."

The family continued: "Dickey was larger than life, and his loss will be felt world-wide. At this difficult time, the family asks for prayers and respect for their privacy in the coming days. More information will be forthcoming at the appropriate time."

PEOPLE can confirm Betts' cause of death was cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the late artist's manager David Spero.

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Prosecutors put men on death row. This California D.A. wants to take them off

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Capital punishment in California exists in law, but in practicality ended in 2019 when Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered death row to be dismantled.

Still, 625 men and 20 women remain incarcerated with death sentences, facing the unlikely but possible prospect that under a different governor, they could be executed. About one-third of the condemned are Black .

In recent months, Santa Clara County Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen , once a prosecutor who believed in capital punishment and one who rejects association with the progressive prosecutor movement , has been quietly preparing to ask courts to change the penalties of 14 men from his county who are waiting for that ultimate sentence to be carried out.

In most cases, he wants the court to re-sentence these men (Santa Clara has no women on death row) to serve life without parole. But in a few separate cases, already completed last year, he has requested that they be given the chance of freedom.

Why? An inherent racism in our justice system handed down from slavery to mass incarceration and capital punishment, he cites as a main reason.

“[W]e are not confident that these sentences were attained without racial bias,” his office wrote in a motion to courts expected to be filed in coming days in multiple cases. “We cannot defend these sentences, and we believe that implicit bias and structural racism played some role in the death sentence.”

For activists in the death penalty world, that’s an old argument. But coming from a mainstream prosecutor, it’s a mic drop.

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Rosen’s unprecedented move (he is the only prosecutor in California to have made such a blanket request, and the only one I could find nationwide) has gone largely unnoticed. But it represents a new battleground in the fight over the death penalty.

While many prosecutors around the state and the nation have stopped the use of the death penalty moving forward, Rosen is the first to look back and answer the question — with collective action — If it isn’t fair now, how could it have been fair then?

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Rosen’s move to undo what he sees as the ongoing injustice of past convictions puts pressure on other prosecutors to follow suit, especially those such as George Gascón who have made their reputation as reformers but who have failed to go as far. Gascón’s office said he has been examining death penalty sentencing on a case-by-case basis and 29 people have been re-sentenced out of more than 120 on death row convicted in L.A. But he is unlikely to ask for a group re-sentencing in an election year , with a solid conservative challenger.

“It doesn’t mean that I think things are as bad today as they were 50 years ago, I completely reject that idea,” Rosen told me. “But I also trusted that as a society, we could ensure the fundamental fairness of the legal process for all people. With every exoneration, with every story of racial injustice, it becomes clear to me that this is not the world we live in.”

Elisabeth Semel, director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley, calls Rosen’s move “highly significant” because it examines every case in his jurisdiction, and has the potential to convince others that it isn’t just single cases that require examination, but the death sentence as a whole — a position the Legislature’s Committee on Revision of the Penal Code recommended in 2021.

Currently, about 35% of those on death row are Black, despite Black people making up only about 7% of California’s population. An additional 26% of death row inmates are Hispanic or Mexican. Overall, nearly 70% of death row inmates are people of color.

Semel points out that it’s not just the race of the alleged perpetrator that can lead to the death penalty, but also the race of the victim and the attitudes of those in charge of the prosecution. Suspects accused of killing a white person, for example, are more likely to face the death penalty than those accused of killing a person of color.

“There is nothing, nothing that these cases have more in common than racial discrimination, whether we are talking about privileging white victims, meaning seeking the death penalty in white crime, or disadvantaging Black clients,” she said.

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The inherent unfairness of the death penalty, whether because of race or its finality, has been debated for years, often with soul-searching arguments that go beyond politics. Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, in 2003 issued a blanket commutation for all 167 inmates facing the death penalty in his state, citing worry that “the demon of error” was ever-present — one of the first and boldest actions by a prominent politician against the death penalty.

Former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, did the same in 2022, re-sentencing 17 death row prisoners to life without parole. Twenty-three states , including Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico, have abolished the death penalty.

But California politicians, and voters , have been less certain. Over the years, voters have decided to keep the death penalty when asked via ballot measures. Rosen has asked for it four times, and won capital punishment in one case — that of defendant Melvin Forte, convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering a young German tourist . Forte’s sentence is among those Rosen is seeking to change.

Newsom, despite his moratorium, hasn’t gone as far as Brown or Ryan. That leaves the death penalty in California largely in the hands of locally elected prosecutors such as Rosen who have virtually no political incentive to revisit past capital convictions.

I am not one to easily believe politicians, but when I asked Rosen why he was putting himself out front on a controversial issue, he told me it was because it was the right thing to do. Then he told me how he came to that conclusion, and it feels genuine because I experienced something similar myself.

Rosen’s views on the death penalty had been shifting since the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Shortly after, he put into place a series of prosecutorial reforms meant to address racial bias, including deciding not to seek the death penalty in future cases.

But it wasn’t until two trips to Montgomery, Ala. — once the capital of the Confederacy and now home to the Legacy Museum , which traces the history of slavery through mass incarceration of people of color — that the past took on relevance for him as a matter of contemporary justice.

How can a museum have such an impact? I went myself because I couldn’t quite imagine. A modern monument in what can only be described as a dismal city where the ghosts of millions of trafficked humans seem ever present, the museum lays out with astonishing clarity a history that is painful, but necessary to acknowledge.

Twelve million Black people kidnapped from their homes overseas and sold at American auctions.

Nine million Black Americans subjected to the domestic terror of Jim Crow-era violence that left justice in the hands of racist vigilantes. The museum documents the lynching of a 3-year-old girl, along with her 10-year-old sister — just two of dozens of children killed, often while law enforcement watched.

That violence forced many to move to the North and West to avoid murders, rapes and beatings. But even in those supposed safe havens, including California, 10 million Black Americans found that, just like in the South, they were segregated into lesser housing and lesser schools, and ultimately had lesser opportunity.

Banks wouldn’t lend, police used crimes such as jaywalking to arrest, schools failed to teach. And beyond that secretive repression, they were still not immune to the violence of the slave states — California may have lynched at least 350 people between 1850 and 1935.

That segregation and bias led to 8 million Black Americans systemically over-incarcerated though laws and policies that targeted people of color, and communities of color, turning vigilante justice into legal imprisonment.

At the Legacy Museum’s sister site, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the weight of that oppression and pain takes on literal significance. Rectangular steel markers, their shape like a coffin hanging from a limb, serve as monuments to 4,400 Black Americans lynched between 1877 and 1950.

The markers begin at eye level, but walking down from the hilltop site, they begin to hang over visitors, casting long, cold shadows.

It is impossible to pass beneath them and not feel their historical weight.

“I think that if more people went there, they would think a little differently about our country, and hopefully act a little differently also,” Rosen told me.

“I went there supporting the death penalty,” he said. “I left not so sure anymore.”

Though I was less certain about the death penalty before visiting Montgomery, I came away, like Rosen, with no doubts that its origin is dark and tainted.

Rosen said the realization that was most profound for him was how often supposedly illegal lynchings took place with the support of law enforcement — too often victims were handed over by deputies or killed on the courthouse steps.

“If not considered lawful exercises of state power, they weren’t unlawful,” Rosen pointed out. “Nobody was prosecuted for them.”

It was not until well into the 20th century that outcry over that semi-state sanctioned murder made it untenable even in the South. The answer to that outrage was to move the killing back inside the courthouse, with the use of the death penalty.

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Bryan Stevenson , the founder of the Legacy Museum and a death penalty lawyer, calls Rosen’s decision “remarkable” because it takes that true but sidelined history and turns it into mainstream policy.

“It says something about our ability to confront history honestly and to turn the page in a meaningful way,” Stevenson told me. “Some people may not understand it, some people may have issues with it. But the truth is that we can create a future that allows us to begin to experience something that feels more like freedom, more like equality and more like justice than we’ve ever experienced in this country.”

A devout Jew, Rosen said the museum and his own experiences as a prosecutor made him question if the death penalty can truly be separated from that foundation of lynchings — and if killing as punishment can ever be just or come from a place of moral authority regardless of race.

“It’s not like I open the Bible and the penal code and figure out what to do,” he said. “I think that in my lifetime, we will look back and say it was not right to execute people.”

Rosen’s office has reached out to all the victims in the cases he is examining. Some are relieved to have finality in the case, he said, knowing the death penalty is really just a never-ending appeal. Some would prefer to keep the death sentence regardless of whether it takes place or not.

Some have simply moved on after so many years and are open to his argument that there should be limits to human justice. Rosen tells them he wants his power, and ours, to end at deciding where people who commit the worst of the worst crimes die — in prison.

He makes no excuses for horrific crimes that led to the death sentences in his jurisdiction. A grandmother stabbed to death. A wife shot and rolled down a hill, still alive. A gas station attendant killed to prevent his testimony about a robbery.

But he points out that many of the crimes that led to the death penalty decades ago would not have garnered the same punishment today. Some of the perpetrators were convicted as teenagers, some were accessories to the crime at a time when laws made fewer distinctions. Many have been imprisoned for more than 30 years. Some had unfair trials.

One of those men is Willie Branner, a Black man who was convicted in 1982 by an all-white jury of shooting and killing jewelry store owner Edward Dukor during a robbery in Milpitas. The prosecutor in that case removed Black, Asian and Jewish jurors, including removing one female Black juror in part for being “overweight and poorly groomed.”

Recently, a federal court ruled that Branner was entitled to a new trial based on that less-than-impartial jury.

Now 74, Branner has been, as they say, a model prisoner. I messaged with him recently, and he told me he is relieved that his family no longer has to worry about him someday being executed. He dreams of possible freedom, opening a tailoring business and working to “help rebuild our society for the rest of my life, God willing.”

Branner does not know how his sentence will work out, only that it will not end with death. He is not claiming he is innocent, just that he has changed in the decades since the shooting, just as Rosen has changed since he first began prosecuting.

“It’s not that I think that the people on death row in my county have not committed horrible, terrible crimes. They have,” Rosen said.

There is no doubt, he believes, that decency and public safety demand people be held accountable for their harms.

Even when that means holding ourselves accountable for ours.

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Anita Chabria is a California columnist for the Los Angeles Times, based in Sacramento. Before joining The Times, she worked for the Sacramento Bee as a member of its statewide investigative team and previously covered criminal justice and City Hall.

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