Hearing for South Bay murder convict's death penalty resentencing continued to March 2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A resentencing case involving convicted mass shooter Richard Farley was once again delayed on Friday in Santa Clara County.
The district attorney is seeking to have Farley's death sentence changed to life without parole. However, the judge hearing the case decided to allow more victims to speak out against the resentencing before making a ruling.
Emotions ran high in a Santa Clara County courtroom Friday. Sadness, anger and deceit were just some of the feelings that the victims of a mass workplace shooting at tech firm ESL Inc. still feel more than 30 years later.
All this as a judge issued a continuance for the resentencing case for Farley, who was a former employee of ESL.
"This is horrific what we're being put through again after 36 years, in my particular case. And we are leaving the court room each time, feeling as though it just doesn't matter what we say," said Elizabeth Allen.
Allen lost her husband Buddy in the mass shooting in 1988. He is one of the seven killed at the Sunnyvale tech firm. Another six were injured in the shooting.
VIDEO: Convicted murderer from 1988 Sunnyvale mass shooting could be resentenced to life in prison
"Buddy was the absolute love of my life," Allen said.
Allen and her husband both worked at the tech firm, ESL Incorporated in Sunnyvale. They had lunch together every day.
"I did not realize that his kiss after lunch was the last kiss I would ever have from him," Allen said. "Buddy was the only one who died immediately, because as he was sitting working at his desk. He was shot in the face with a shotgun at the age of 23."
Farley was convicted and then sentenced to death in 1992.
Allen and other loved ones are fighting against a resentencing that would change Farley's death penalty to life without parole.
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Some, like James Reed, who lost his brother Ron, shared their stories in court.
"How do you explain that this evil, violent act destroyed and decimated my family and other families? Words cannot fully articulated any of that. For the victims' families, the pain never ends," Reed said.
Allen's attorney James McManis says the district attorney's office did not reach out to all victims involved.
He's glad that the continuance issued by the judge Friday will allow others to speak as well.
"ESL had more than 300 employees that day. They're all victims," McManis said. "We found 20 to 30 victims just by our little efforts and all these resources the DA has, he can't find these people? I don't believe it."
This is not the only case DA Jeff Rosen sought to resentence.
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It's part of his "Bend the Arc" initiative, new social justice-centered policies for death row cases in Santa Clara County.
In April, Rosen announced a plan to seek new sentences of "life without the possibility of parole" for inmates previously sentenced to death in the county.
"In terms of judges and juries, they're going to decide where a person dies and that's going to be in prison for the rest of their lives. In terms of when that person is going to die, that's going to be God's decision," Rosen said.
Rosen planned to change sentences for more than a dozen prison inmates.
When Allen received the letter from Rosen, she went through a variety of feelings.
"How is this happening? Why is this happening? Why is this district attorney, on this beautiful letterhead, acting as though he does not know what his job is," Allen said.
In court filings, Rosen said resentencing Farley is not about lessening punishment, but paving the way to the finality of his judgement by ending appeal opportunities and expensive post-conviction litigation for those resentenced.
Rosen said in part in a memorandum, "the man who committed this horrific mass shooting may well deserve his punishment, but we do not deserve to impose it. This community does not deserve an archaic, errors-strewn, and racist system of capital punishment."
"We don't need him to pick apart a case that is finished," Allen said. "We need closure. We need fairness. We need justice."
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Former Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr says no one is standing up for the victim's families.
"Now clearly there's a moratorium on the death penalty in California, and Governor Newsom has moved these inmates into the regular prison population, so there is no longer a death row at San Quentin. So, in a way, since nobody's been executed since 2008 and there's a moratorium, what is the point resentencing them? Except that they're subject to being commuted by the governor," Carr said.
Carr said she expected a large group to show their opposition on Friday.
"In these cases they've come in with essentially a stipulation, they're both agreeing and obviously the defendant is not going to object to getting resentenced. This is pushed by the DA, so there's no one standing up for the victims putting up the legal obstacles about what he's doing," Carr said.
"Why would we tell the United States that it's OK to lessen the death sentence of a mass shooter," Allen said.
The next resentencing hearing will take place in March 2025.
