Calif. Denies First Medical Parole

CORCORAN, Calif. (AP) -- California parole officials have rejected a plea from a quadriplegic convict who hoped to become the first state prison inmate released under a new law aimed at cutting the number of inmates and the cost of care.

Corcoran State Prison inmate Steven Martinez, a 42-year-old convicted kidnapper and rapist, was left a quadriplegic when his spine was severed in a knife fight with other inmates 10 years ago. He's served 12 years of a 157 years-to-life sentence.

Parole commissioners said after a hearing Tuesday that parole would have posed "an unreasonable threat to public safety."

The new law is intended to save the state millions of dollars by freeing medically incapacitated inmates.

Once paroled, the federal government could pay about half of most inmates' medical costs, and the state would not have to guard them.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)