Community Corner
Update: Onion Field Killer Wants `Compassionate Release' from Prison
A man, convicted of abducting two Los Angeles police officers at gunpoint in Hollywood and killing one in Bakersfield, has cancer and seeks release from prison.
Oct. 7: The union that represents the LAPD rank-and-file urged a state parole board today to deny a request for "compassionate release" of "Onion Field" killer Gregory Powell.
Earlier:
A state parole board panel is expected later this month to consider a request to grant a "compassionate release'' from prison for "Onion Field'' killer Gregory Powell, who was convicted of murdering a Los Angeles policeman south of Bakersfield in 1963 after abducting the officer and his partner.
Find out what's happening in Hollywoodfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
An Oct. 18 hearing is set for Powell, who has cancer, according to Sandi Gibbons of the Los Angeles County District's Attorney's Office.
A panel from the state's Board of Parole Hearings denied Powell parole in January 2010, ruling that he would not be eligible for another parole hearing for three years. It was his 11th parole hearing.
Find out what's happening in Hollywoodfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents the LAPD's rank-and-file, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office opposed parole for Powell the last time around.
Powell was convicted of murdering 31-year-old LAPD Officer Ian Campbell in a crime detailed in former LAPD Officer Joseph Wambaugh's bestseller The Onion Field. The book was made into a movie in 1979, with James Woods portraying Powell and Ted Danson playing Campbell.
Campbell and partner Karl Hettinger were abducted at gunpoint by Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith on March 9, 1963, while the two officers were patrolling in Hollywood.
The officers were driven to an isolated onion field, where Powell shot Campbell to death. Hettinger was fired upon as he fled the onion field, but he managed to escape in the darkness.
The original convictions of Powell and Smith were reversed on appeal and they were retried and convicted again.
Powell was initially condemned to death, but the sentence was reduced to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that California's death penalty law at the time was unconstitutional. Smith, released from prison in 1982, was in and out of custody several times before dying at a Los Angeles County jail facility in April 2007.
— City News Service
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
