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Advocates urge Senate Judiciary to allow posthumous factual-innocence petitions; friendly amendment submitted to SB 66
Summary
During public comment at the Senate Judiciary Committee's first meeting, an advocate for exonerees asked the committee to consider a friendly amendment to SB 66 to permit posthumous factual-innocence petitions; a second caller raised separate complaints about the Attorney General and local prosecutions.
Tonia Brown, an advocate with Advocates for the Inmates and the Innocent, asked the Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee to allow families to seek judicial exoneration for deceased people by submitting what she described as a "factual innocence posthumous petition." Brown told the committee she submitted a friendly amendment to SB 66 (from the attorney general's office) to create that avenue and said she had provided audio clips of exonerees who testified before the Nevada Supreme Court on Sept. 20, 2023.
"We submitted the friendly amendment to SB 66. It's a factual innocence posthumous petition. It would allow families such as myself and others the opportunity to continue to exonerate their loved, their loved ones," Brown said during public comment.
Brown said exculpatory evidence in her brother's case was discovered in the Washoe County District Attorney's Office files as recently as December 2024 and argued that, without a statutory mechanism, families cannot obtain judicial exoneration for people who died before they could be cleared. She also said the Nevada Board of Pardons lacked resources to issue factual-innocence posthumous pardons, which is why she urged the committee to consider the statutory change.
A caller from the public, Michael Sternberg, raised separate allegations about his own criminal case and criticized Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, saying he had filed federal litigation and called for Ford's impeachment. Sternberg, identifying himself as a Las Vegas resident, described a 2021 arrest and subsequent federal legal action; his remarks were delivered in a heated tone and included calls for impeachment. Those claims were presented as the caller's assertions and are not independently verified in committee testimony.
Chair Melanie Scheibel opened the meeting's public-comment period and explained how to sign up and call in; Michael Scully, deputy legislative counsel, reported there were no in-person callers in the Las Vegas listening room during the in-person comment period. Brown and the caller were the only members of the public recorded providing comment at this meeting.
No committee action was taken on the amendment or SB 66 at this meeting; Brown said only that she had submitted a proposed friendly amendment and had contacted the attorney general's office about it. The committee did not vote on any proposals during public comment.
