San Bernardino, CA – Law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters is delighted to announce that pro bono client Demetrius Howard is home for the holidays after being released last week from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Mr. Howard, of San Bernardino, served more than 30 years in prison under California’s “felony murder” rule, which resulted in Mr. Howard receiving a death sentence after his co-defendant shot a woman during a robbery. Prosecutors at the time could levy first-degree murder charges against any individual involved in a felony that resulted in death—regardless of their individual culpability for the death. In 2018, legislative reforms changed this rule, allowing defendants to reopen their cases in certain circumstances, and since then, Keker and its lawyers have helped incarcerated individuals like Mr. Howard through the firm’s Felony Murder Resentencing Project.
“We are thrilled that after decades of being incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, Demetrius is a free man,” said Maya James, the Keker partner leading the case and founder of the Felony Murder Resentencing Project. “In fighting for his freedom, he faced tremendous opposition from the system and hardened prosecutors that sought only to keep him in prison. But his determination—and that of my colleagues—encourages me to keep fighting for those who are unfairly incarcerated.”
In the 1990s, Mr. Howard was sentenced to death under California’s old felony murder rule for participating in a robbery in which his co-defendant unexpectedly shot and killed the victim. With the 2018 passage of California SB 1437, prosecutors can now pursue first-degree murder charges only against individuals who are responsible for the killing itself or acted with reckless disregard for human life. The reforms also created a path for resentencing for the many people convicted of murder under the old standard.
After a two-day hearing to petition for resentencing in late 2023—in which the co-defendant testified that he was under the influence of narcotics and acted erratically and unpredictably—the court concluded that the prosecution had failed to meet its burden and vacated Mr. Howard’s murder conviction. The court resentenced Mr. Howard to two years on the underlying felony. After the prosecution appealed, the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s rulings. Mr. Howard was finally released earlier this month after having spent over 30 years in prison.
“The trial court rightly concluded that Demetrius should only have been convicted of attempted robbery and sentenced to two or three years in custody.” said Nic Marais, a Keker partner also representing Mr. Howard. “Instead, because of someone else’s actions, Demetrius was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. This is precisely the miscarriage of justice that SB 1437 was intended to address. And although it has taken years, justice has finally been done here.”
In addition to Ms. James and Mr. Marais, Keker associates Victor Chiu and Paul von Autenried represented Mr. Howard in obtaining his release.
Ms. James—a former public defender extern—created the firm’s Felony Murder Resentencing Project to support this reform in 2019. Since then, Keker’s pro bono program has taken on eight cases and helped at least six incarcerated individuals overturn their sentences. The reputation of the work has grown beyond San Francisco, and the project today receives inquiries from attorneys across the state.
Other examples of the Felony Murder Resentencing Project’s work include the following:
- Emmitt Lewis was convicted of first-degree murder in 2006 for his involvement in robbery, where the getaway truck struck and killed a pedestrian in 2003. After an evidentiary hearing proved he was not the driver, he became the first person in SF to have a first-degree felony murder conviction overturned under SB 1437, and he was released in 2019.
- Roderick Thomas was convicted of first-degree murder in 2014 for his involvement in a burglary where another person separately entered the home and killed one of the residents. KVP achieved resentencing for Mr. Thomas in March 2023, when his homicide conviction was vacated. However, the trial judge then imposed hefty sentencing drug-related sentencing enhancements, over KVP’s objection. The KVP team appealed, explaining that the prosecution had never proved an underlying drug offense—and in August 2024, the Court of Appeal struck the enhancement and ordered remand.
- Zachary Vanderhorst was sentenced at age 19 to life in prison in 1974 for a murder he did not commit. He was released in January 2020 after serving 45 years—and, in December 2021, the KVP team succeeded in obtaining a finding of actual innocence for his wrongful conviction, thus entitling Mr. Vanderhorst to compensation for the time he wrongfully spent in prison.
About Keker, Van Nest & Peters
For more than 40 years, Keker, Van Nest & Peters has litigated complex, high-stakes civil and criminal cases throughout the nation. The firm takes the cases where companies, products, and careers are riding on the result. Our clients are high-profile individuals, as well as some of the world’s most successful companies, including Genentech, Google, Instacart, Lyft, Major League Baseball, Meta, Netflix and Qualcomm. The firm’s areas of expertise include intellectual property, professional liability, class actions, general contract and commercial litigation, antitrust, white collar, and appellate. Learn more at Keker.com.