By Dean Maddox, Public Safety & Crime Reporter

A new California Board of Parole Hearings policy set to take effect October 1 could open the door to resentencing or clemency for thousands of inmates serving life without parole. For many victims’ families, this could pave the way for the unthinkable: serial killers, mass murderers, and those convicted of killing police officers and children walking free.

The regulations, approved by the Office of Administrative Law on July 9, create an administrative process allowing the board to recommend inmates who have served at least 25 continuous years for either a court resentencing hearing or a gubernatorial commutation. The change was made without a vote of the Legislature or the public.

Laci Peterson’s family has joined a lawsuit filed by the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation seeking to block the policy. Peterson was eight months pregnant when she and her unborn son, Conner, were murdered by her husband, Scott Peterson, in 2002. Scott Peterson is currently serving life without the possibility of parole after his death sentence was overturned.

“Victims’ families were promised that life without the possibility of parole meant exactly that,” said Anne Marie Schubert, president and CEO of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation and former Sacramento County district attorney. “Instead, they are being forced to relive unimaginable tragedies decades after they believed justice had been served.”

The lawsuit argues the board exceeded its authority by using the rulemaking process to fundamentally alter sentencing outcomes that were previously considered final. According to board documents, more than 2,400 inmates would become immediately eligible when the rules take effect. That number is projected to rise to nearly 4,000 by the end of 2035.

Among those potentially affected are inmates convicted of some of the most serious crimes under California law, including special-circumstance murders that carried life without parole. The regulations exclude those currently on death row and certain sex offenders required to register under Penal Code section 290, but they do not exclude the majority of life-without-parole cases.

Phyllis Loya, whose son, Concord police officer Larry Lasater, was killed in 2005, joined the legal challenge. She described the repeated efforts to revisit final sentences as feeling like “they come like thieves in the night to rob us of justice.”

Sharon Rocha, Laci Peterson’s mother, has said justice requires finality and that families should not spend the rest of their lives wondering whether the person responsible for their loved one’s death will receive another chance at freedom.

The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation and the families involved contend the policy undermines Marsy’s Law, the 2008 victims’ rights measure that voters approved to protect the finality of criminal judgments. State officials have noted that the new process only creates recommendations and that final decisions would still rest with the courts or the governor. Critics counter that creating an official pathway for reconsideration of life-without-parole sentences changes the practical meaning of those sentences.

The lawsuit was filed in Sacramento Superior Court in July and remains pending as the October 1 effective date approaches.