Ewing v. California

The Ewing opinion (below) discusses the Polly Klaas kidnapping and murder.  

Compare the prior history of Klaas's murderer and Ewing's history (see this article for more information).

Here's a particularly poignant description of the sentencing argument from Ewing's attorney and Ewing:

Ewing's lawyer, Ms. Bristo, asked Judge Myers to treat his current offense as a misdemeanor or to strike one of the first two offenses on which the prosecution was relying.  She argued that all of Ewing's offenses were drug related, and that he had never received assistance for his drug problems.  In addition to his drug addiction, Ewing was battling full blown AIDS.  At the time of trial, complications from the disease had caused him to go blind in one eye (and he later began to lose vision in the other).  Bristo portrayed Ewing as a terminally ill man who posed no threat of violence in the future.  

Ewing himself addressed the court, stating, "I would just like to beg the mercy of the court asking that any sentence I be given be suspended and I'm given a chance in a drug rehab to get my life together. I don't have very long and the little time I do have left to live I want to do something, make myself better."  Several people, including a jail chaplain, wrote letters on Ewing's behalf.  One such letter suggested that Ewing could spend the remainder of his life acting as an AIDS advocate and warning others about the dangers of drug abuse.  

Gary Ewing died in prison in 2012, months shy of his 50th birthday.