16 March 2020 :

Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson sentenced Kenneth Clair, 60, to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1984 killing of 25-year-old Linda Faye Rodgers. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015 overturned Clair’s death sentence, citing errors made by his defense attorney during his trial (see HoC 31/03/2015). However, the appellate judges upheld the actual murder conviction of Clair, who at the time had become the subject of a viral social media campaign that attracted more than 150,000 supporters calling for his exoneration. Orange County prosecutors opted not to once again seek the death penalty by retrying the trial’s penalty phase. Clair’s attorneys asked that he be re-sentenced to 25-years-to-life, which, due to his time already served behind bars, would have made him immediately eligible for parole.