Family Of Slain Student To File Lawsuit Against Former Gov. Schwarzenegger
LOS ANGELES -- The relatives of a slain San Diego college student are filing a lawsuit against former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for violating their constitutional rights when he commuted the sentence of one of the men convicted of killing their son.
The family of Luis Santos will file the lawsuit tomorrow. The lawsuit stems from when then-governor Schwarzenegger when he cut in half the prison term of the son of a former California Assembly speaker.
In his last hours in office, Schwarzenegger reduced the sentence of Esteban Nunez, the 21-year-old son of former California Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez, from 16 to seven years.
The Santos family has been critical of Schwarzenegger's actions, accusing him of granting a favor to a political ally.
Schwarzenegger later sent a letter apologizing to the Santos family for failing to let them know that he was commuting Nunez' sentence.
Luis Santos was a 22-year-old business student at San Diego's Mesa College, when he was stabbed to death on the San Diego State University campus in 2008. Three other people were wounded.
Prosecutors say three Sacramento men were angry after being refused entry to a fraternity party and attacked the unarmed group.
Esteban Nunez later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors say he stabbed two other men but not Santos.
Schwarzenegger's commutation document noted that Esteban Nunez had no previous criminal record. It also noted that he received the same sentence as co-defendant Ryan Jett, even though Jett actually stabbed Santos and has a significant criminal record.
"I believe his sentence is disproportionate in comparison to Jett's," Schwarzenegger said in the order.
Jett, 25, also pleaded guilty.
In his letter to the family of Santos, Schwarzenegger "tried to give some excuses on his actions and then with an apology," Fred Santos said. "We do not believe the sincerity of his apology."
Esteban Nunez's attorney, Bradley Patton, has denied there was political favoritism and said he believes his client actually received an unfairly harsh sentence from the judge because of his father's position.
