In my post The Crime I mention the fact that I believe RDK (see acronyms below) getting pardoned was a political move.
In 2017, right about the time of RDK’s release from prison, there was a lot of media coverage. In the many interviews with the Police Chief (PC) I noticed inconsistent statements as to what brought about the reopening of Rhonda and Donnie’s (already solved) murder in 2016.
In 2013 RDK had petitioned the governor of California (Jerry Brown) for clemency on the grounds that he was innocent and that the evidence found in his apartment with Rhonda’s blood in 1978 was planted and he was framed. Clemency had been denied. The PC (who was acting PC at the time before becoming the new PC) tasked his cold case detectives to do some investigating. His reasons why he made that decision are inconsistent and something about those inconsistencies seem strange to me. The result of that investigation somehow changed the governor’s mind and he pardoned RDK. I recently found out politics were involved but much deeper than I originally believed
With that said, the rest of this post will be left up to the reader to draw their own conclusion.
The following are some of the statements PC made in reference to why he decided to reopen the case:
- In one interview PC (when he was acting PC) claimed he had been going through old news clippings about his department and came across some from the Wicht murders and he reached out to XCV who had expressed concerns in the past about whether RDK was guilty. [Simi Valley Acorn 11/24/2017]
- In a different interview he stated XCV approached him about the case when PC started at the SVPD nearly 30 years ago telling him he ought to take a look at this if he’s to be a police officer. [Ventura County Star 11/24/2017]
- In another interview PC told reporters he had begun reviewing RDK’s case in 2016 after a retired detective (XCV) expressed concerns about the conviction. [Ventura County Star 11/21/2017]
But before all this happened with PC a bigger move was made. In 2013 XCV helped RDK draft the petition for clemency and actually submitted it to Tom Hayden, a high-profile political activist and California politician.
I did a little research on Tom Hayden and found that in his life as a political activist, he had very radical left political views, was a well-known communist sympathizer, and had close connections and alignment with the Communist Party USA. He co-wrote an article where he states, “We refuse to be anti-communist.” [1] He also said, “Communism is one of the options that can improve people’s lives.” [2] One article describes him as a communist, radical left-wing, American hating activist. And what I found most interesting, in the 1970s he formed a close alliance (both personal and political) with then California Governor Jerry Brown (FYI, Jerry Brown served as governor of California in two separate terms: 1975-1983 and 2011-2019). In his political career, he served as a California State Assemblyman (1982-1992) and State Senator (1992-2000).
I have my own thoughts and have drawn my own conclusion from this information but as I said before, I will let the reader form their own opinion.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope one day to have answers to all my questions.
I welcome any comments, feedback or questions. Just email me:
If you would like to know real names for the acronyms just email me and I will be happy to share that with you: RandDjustice@gmail.com
Justice for Rhonda and Donnie 