Juan Corona Up for Parole

on December 5, 2011 in Serial Killers by Brian Combs

Tags: Juan Corona

Juan Corona was found guilty in 1973 of having murdered 25 migrant farm workers near Yuba City, California. He is up today for parole for the 7th time.

Corona’s 1973 conviction was overturned on appeal, but he was convicted again in 1982. He was then sentenced to 25 concurrent life sentences. He was not given the death penalty as it had been ruled unconstitutional at the time.

Now 77 years old, he has been diagnosed with dementia as well as other mental disorders.

No victims’ relatives are expected to speak at the hearing. Said Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams:

We have had no contact with survivors for two decades now. The people who he killed were farm laborers who were itinerant. Most of them didn’t have relatives who could be contacted back in the `70s at the time of trial.

Corona’s attorneys argue that his mental and physical condition makes him less dangerous, which Adams disagrees:

He is unreliably dangerous. He’s also old and not in a condition where he can do well on the streets without prison supervision. Releasing him into the public wouldn’t be doing him any good or the public any good.

Corona has always maintained his innocence.