Fresno Judge Orders DA to Hand Over Decades of Records in Racial Bias Case

A Fresno County Superior Court judge on Friday rejected nearly every attempt by prosecutors to water down an order requiring them to produce records that could reveal racial bias in a decades-old murder case.

The case involves Douglas “Chief” Stankewitz, a Monache man from Big Sandy Rancheria who spent longer on California’s death row than anyone else before prosecutors dropped the death penalty in 2019. He’s now serving life without parole for the 1978 killing of Theresa Greybeal.

Stankewitz is seeking relief under the California Racial Justice Act, which bars the state from seeking or obtaining a conviction or sentence based on race, ethnicity, or national origin. His attorneys argue racial bias infected his arrest, prosecution, conviction, and sentencing — including jury selection at his retrial.

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Judge Alvin Harrell III issued a discovery order in June directing the Fresno County DA’s office to produce a spreadsheet of every defendant charged with murder in Fresno County from 1975 to 1985, data linking co-defendants charged in the same homicide, a list of death sentences, and any evidence that anyone involved in the case acted with racial bias.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Jamie Kalebjian filed a motion asking the court to modify several parts of that order. At Friday’s hearing, Harrell rejected nearly all of it.

The prosecution first asked to replace defendant names with anonymized identifiers, citing privacy concerns. Harrell rejected the request, finding the case Kalebjian cited involved witnesses, not defendants, and noting the case numbers would lead back to the names anyway.

On co-participant data, Kalebjian told the court the DA’s office could not substantially comply because its case management system has only been in use since 2019 and cannot reliably link defendants charged separately in the same incident. Harrell said he could not order the office to do the “impossible” and directed it to comply to the best of its ability.

For the list of death sentences reaching back to 1975, Kalebjian urged the defense to use the Death Penalty Information Center’s public website, warning the office’s own query would likely be inaccurate and missing large portions of data. Defense attorney Curtis Briggs responded the website does not give the full picture — it would not show, for example, whether a charge had later been struck. Harrell left the order in place.

The prosecution also objected that producing evidence of bias by a judge, attorney, officer, or juror asked it to reach a legal conclusion. Harrell clarified he wasn’t asking the DA’s office to decide whether the Racial Justice Act had been violated — only to produce information that might support such a finding. Kalebjian agreed to search the file.

The defense contends the only prospective Native American juror was improperly dismissed at trial. Senior Deputy District Attorney Elana Smith told the court she recalled no notes specific to jury selection when she and defense counsel went through every box of the physical file during earlier habeas proceedings.

Stankewitz appeared by video from custody. Harrell set the next hearing for Friday, Nov. 6, at 9:15 a.m., when the DA’s office is expected to report on its progress.

The Breakdown

• Stankewitz was convicted of first-degree murder with a special circumstance in 1978 and sentenced to death, becoming the longest-serving person on California’s death row before the Fresno County DA’s office dropped the death penalty in 2019.
• He is now seeking relief under the California Racial Justice Act, arguing racial bias affected his arrest, prosecution, conviction, and sentence.
• Judge Harrell ordered the DA’s office in June to produce a spreadsheet of every murder defendant charged in Fresno County from 1975 to 1985, co-participant data, a list of death sentences, and any evidence of racial bias by anyone involved in the case.
• Prosecutors asked to modify the order by anonymizing names, relying on a public website for death-sentence data, and narrowing what counts as evidence of bias. The judge rejected nearly all of it.
• The next hearing is Nov. 6, when the DA’s office is expected to report on what it has produced.

What This Means for You

This case tests whether the California Racial Justice Act — a law designed to root out racial bias in the criminal justice system — has real teeth when applied to a case that stretches back nearly five decades. The judge’s order requires the office to produce records that Stankewitz’s attorneys say could support their claim that Fresno County charged and sentenced Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic defendants more harshly than white defendants during that period.

What to Watch

The prosecution fought nearly every part of this discovery order and lost. The defense claims Fresno County charged and sentenced Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic defendants more harshly than white defendants.

Watch whether the DA’s office actually produces the records by Nov. 6, or whether it finds new reasons to delay or limit what it hands over.