SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A woman who was 16 when she ambushed and killed her former pimp in a Southern California motel room has been granted clemency by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Sara Kruzan, now 32, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the 1994 shooting death of George Gilbert Howard. Prosecutors said Kruzan was no longer working for Howard when she killed him.
Calling her life sentence "excessive," Schwarzenegger on Sunday commuted Kruzan's sentence to 25 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Her clemency petition cited years of abuse and psychiatric reports saying she suffered from battered women's syndrome.
Schwarzenegger leaves office on Monday.
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