Judge orders Fresno County DA to share evidence in racial justice case

A Fresno County judge ordered prosecutors to hand over evidence in Douglas “Chief” Ray Stankewitz’s racial justice fight, including records the defense says could show how murder cases were handled by race going back to 1972. Judge Alvin M. Harrell III said the defense had cleared the threshold for discovery under California’s Racial Justice Act, a law that bars the state from seeking or obtaining a conviction or sentence based on race, ethnicity or national origin.

The ruling does not decide whether Stankewitz’s conviction was tainted. It does give his attorneys access to material they say may help build a record of how Fresno County has treated Native people and other defendants over time, including demographic information tied to murder prosecutions. Harrell told the parties the statute requires a plausible showing that racism may have played a role, not a full ruling on the merits before the evidence comes out.

That local history mattered in Harrell’s reasoning. The judge pointed to documented examples of racism in Fresno County, including a May 8 Fresno County District Attorney’s Office news release that used the slur “Squaw Valley” instead of Yokuts Valley. The word choice landed in the middle of a long-running fight over place names, language and whose history the county’s official records recognize. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names formally changed Squaw Valley to Yokuts Valley after a January 2022 proposal from the Change S Valley coalition, and Gov. Gavin Newsom later signed a 2022 law requiring the term “squaw” to be removed from California place names by 2025.

Stankewitz’s case has been in the system for decades. He was first convicted and sentenced to death in 1978 for the killing of Theresa Greybeal, committed when he was 19. Fresno County prosecutors announced in April 2019 that they would not seek the death penalty again and said life without parole would be “fair and just.” The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation listed 573 people on death row as of May 18, 2026, and Stankewitz has long been identified as one of the state’s longest-serving condemned prisoners.

The decision also reflects how the Racial Justice Act is changing criminal litigation in California. The California Judicial Council has said the law has increased complexity in post-judgment cases, and its discovery rules are meant to let defendants gather evidence before a court fully decides the claim. Fresno County officials have fought the broader anti-slur law in court, suing the state in 2023, even as county budget documents still carry references to Squaw Valley Ranchos and related service areas. In Stankewitz’s case, that history now sits inside the record he is trying to use against the county that convicted him.