Patrick Harvey, reportedly the first Humboldt County defendant sentenced under California’s three strikes law, will soon be a free man after serving 9,954 consecutive days — more than 27 years — incarcerated for a trio of nonviolent felony convictions, a judge ruled March 11.
At the request of the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office under the state’s prosecutor-led recall and resentencing pilot program, Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Killoran revisited the punishment Harvey received in 1997, resentencing him to eight years in prison (time served) for a conviction of first-degree residential burglary and ordering him released from custody.
Harvey, 53, appeared before the court in an orange jail jumpsuit, his charcoal gray hair neatly brushed back, waving a shackled hand to one of the 15 or so family members who entered the courtroom in his support before the hearing began. Over the course of about 30 minutes, he stood listening as District Attorney Stacey Eads, Deputy District Attorney Shelly Small and Deputy Public Defender Casey Russo all made brief cases in favor of his resentencing, echoing points made in an extensive filing from Eads’ office. When Killoran, who’d already indicated his tentative decision was to grant the resentencing request, asked Harvey if he had anything to add, he appeared overwhelmed.
“I appreciate the chance, I appreciate the opportunity and I understand it’s a gift,” Harvey said, after a brief pause, adding that he’s “thankful.”
When Killoran indicated his ruling was final, Harvey’s family in attendance — which spanned generations and included some children born during Harvey’s incarceration — broke into a brief applause before he smiled broadly as a bailiff led him from the courtroom.
Outside the courtroom, Russo walked the family through the bit of uncertainty as to what happens next, saying that it was unclear exactly when Harvey would be released as the matter has to be coordinated between the court, the Humboldt County jail, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Pelican Bay State Prison, where Harvey has been incarcerated. The public defender’s office tried to line everything up so that Harvey will not have to be returned to Pelican Bay, Russo said, adding that he was hopeful Harvey would be released from the jail to awaiting family members who have pledged to take him to check in at the parole office before driving him to the Delancey Street treatment facility in San Francisco, where he’s enrolled to begin a two-year residential program as a part of the plan Harvey himself crafted to transition from decades of incarceration to life as a free man.
During brief remarks in support of her request for Harvey’s resentencing, Eads told the court he has a re-entry plan, saying he’d enrolled in the Delancey Street program and also agreed to be placed on parole supervision despite having earned far more custody credits than would have warranted it. She also noted Harvey’s strong support system, which she said was evidenced by “the significant number of individuals that are here.” Eads said she interviewed Harvey as a part of the consideration process and felt he’d offered “good insight into the impacts of his crimes” on their victims.
“I do have some concern for Mr. Harvey,” she said, noting he’d spent the “vast majority” of his life in juvenile hall, jail and prison. “Nevertheless, he has spent a lot of that incarceration working to address the triggers of his substance use.”
Small then told the court she’d personally spoken with victims of Harvey’s past crimes, noting many said they’d been traumatized by them, with some saying they still struggle with the impacts. Small said all “were pretty much surprised that Mr. Harvey was still serving a sentence for those crimes.” She then turned to Delancey Street, which Harvey himself had sought out, saying it has trainings and tools designed to help people reenter society, with opportunities for employment.
“Mr. Harvey has a clear concept of what he wants to accomplish and hopefully with the tells we’ve given — that he’s given himself — he’ll be able to achieve that,” she said, concluding that she hopes “he has a very good life going forward.”
When it was his turn to address the court, Russo said he didn’t want to “delay getting to the matter at hand,” and just stressed that a “plan is in place” to pick up Harvey after his release, get him to an intake meeting with parole and then drive him down to Delancey Street.
Killoran said he was particularly struck by Harvey’s willingness to be put under parole supervision — with all its restrictions and oversight — after his release.
“Mr. Harvey, I have to say, the fact you want to be placed on parole after all that time in prison is indicative of how serious you are,” he said. “It’s impressive.”
Killoran then officially resentenced Harvey, who was sentenced to serve 25 years to life in prison on June 8, 1998, to eight years in prison for first-degree burglary, and four years each for grand theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm, with the last two sentenced to be served concurrently.
“The total aggregated term is eight years, and that’s going to be time served,” Killoran said, noting that while it’s impossible to say how a court would have sentenced Harvey for the same crimes if he’d committed them today. “There has been a sea change in our attitudes about these things.”
Created in 2019 and funded in 2021, the prosecutor-led resentencing pilot project was enacted in nine California counties to test giving prosecutors the power to file motions seeking to have prison inmates recalled and resentenced. The project is one of many in a multi-pronged state effort to reconsider the cases of people who have been imprisoned under lengthy sentences handed down in a different era of criminal justice in California. Statewide, the project has seen 240 cases referred to a judge for potential re-sentencing, with 227 of those requests granted, according to a review of the project by the RAND Corporation. Harvey’s is the first such case to come before a judge in Humboldt County.
According to state financial records, the current annual cost to imprison someone in California is a record-breaking $132,860. A conservative analysis of historic per-capita prison costs indicates the state has spent more than $1.4 million on Harvey’s incarceration. Harvey, for his part, has said he believes his incarceration saved his life.
In a series of interviews with the Journal last year (“Seeking Salvation,” April 18, 2024), Harvey said he was focused on “living in amends,” or helping those around him and improving himself in a constant effort to repay his debt to society.
“I do that in showing that I owe society something, that I owe society what I took from it,” he said. “In living in amends, you atone for the damage you’ve done. And you do it daily.”
Harvey said that, if released, he hoped to successfully complete the Delancey Street program before finding work as a tattoo artist or painter, with the ultimate goal of becoming a substance use counselor.
At the conclusion of the March 11 hearing, Killoran addressed Harvey directly.
“Mr. Harvey, good luck to you,” he said, noting that he’d personally toured Delancey Street’s facilities a couple of years back. “It looks pretty solid. If I have any recommendation for you, it’s: Get a job in the kitchen, because those guys looked pretty healthy.”
A few minutes later, the courtroom had been cleared and Harvey’s family filled the hall, abuzz with a mix of joy, excitement and relief. One family member who’d been in attendance asked what would happen when Harvey was released from jail.
“They just open the door and he walks out?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Russo responded.
“Wow,” she said, seeming a bit stunned at the idea of the man absent for decades from family gatherings and celebrations simply stepping out into the sunshine on Fourth Street in what could be a matter of hours, free again after 27 years.
Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal’s news editor. Reach him at (707) 442-1400, extension 321, or thad@northcoastjournal.com.
This article appears in 10 Foliies Anniversary.
