SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The last of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of children and holding them and their driver for $5 million ransom in 1976 was recommended for parole on Friday with the support of two of the victims.
Parole commissioners decided Frederick Woods, 70, no longer is a danger to the public after previous panels had denied him parole 17 times.
The decision by Commissioner Patricia Cassady and Deputy Commissioner Keith Stanton will still be considered by Gov. Gavin Newsom, but the governor can’t block it because it’s not a murder conviction. He could only refer the decision to the full Board of Parole Hearings for a review.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
The governor’s late father, state Judge William Newsom, was on an appellate panel in 1980 that reduced the men’s life sentences to give them a chance at parole. Once retired, he advocated for their release in 2011, noting that no one was seriously physically injured during the kidnapping.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Jada Pinkett Smith breaks silence after Will Smith slaps Chris Rock
- 4-year-old girl dies after shooting in DeKalb County, police say
- Spring break 2022: 161 arrested, 75 guns seized in Panama City Beach crackdown
Woods’ accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, already were freed. An appeals court ordered Richard released in 2012 and then-Gov. Jerry Brown paroled James in 2015.
All three were from wealthy San Francisco Bay Area families when they kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver near Chowchilla, about 125 miles (201 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
They buried the children, ages 5 to 14, along with their bus driver in a ventilated bunker east of San Francisco. The victims were able to dig their way out more than a day later.
Woods read an apology for his crime at Friday’s parole hearing.
“I’ve had empathy for the victims which I didn’t have then,” Woods said. “I’ve had a character change since then.”
“I was 24 years old,” he added. “Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. I fully take responsibility for this heinous act.”
California law now requires parole commissioners to give greater weight to freeing inmates who were young when they committed their crime, and to those who are now elderly and have served lengthy prison sentences.
“This is an individual who’s demonstrated how dangerous he is. He’s ruined the lives of dozens of these kids — they still struggle, a lot of them, with the aftereffects of this,” Madera County District Attorney Sally Moreno said after the decision.
She thinks Newsom may agree to seek review by the full parole board, given the notoriety of the crime.
“He’s not someone who should be released,” Moreno said. “He’s demonstrated the capacity to do this kind of a crime…to mastermind and carry out something like this.”
Newsom’s office said that the governor “carefully reviews parole decisions to determine whether a parole grant is consistent with public safety.”
©2022 Cox Media Group
