PAROLE DENIED
Inmate John Wayne Card was denied parole on April 23, 2019. He will serve an additional 3 years before parole will be considered again. In 1974, Inmate Card murdered 3 members of the Griffiths family as part of a robbery scheme. He then kidnapped and held hostage 3 members of the Skillin family for nearly a week while he attempted to evade law enforcement. Finally, after abandoning the Skillin family by chaining them to a tree in the forest, he was captured near Truckee by a coalition of northern California law enforcement agencies and the FBI. Inmate Card was convicted at a jury trial and sentenced to death. However, in 1976 the California Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty statute violated the California Constitution and commuted the death sentences of Inmate Card and approximately 70 other inmates to life in prison. The statute was later updated to address the constitutional concerns of the California Supreme Court, but the commuted death sentences could not be reinstated.
The parole hearing was attended by Deputy District Attorney Michael Coffey in Corcoran State Prison. The District Attorney’s Office would like to thank the Griffiths family, the Skillin family, former Glenn County District Attorney Fred Meckfessel (who prosecuted the original case) former Glenn County Sheriff Roger Roberts (who was an investigating Officer on the original case), and former Glenn County District Attorney Robert Holzapfel for their support in writing letters to the parole board opposing Inmate Card’s release.