Richard Allen Davis

Richard Allen Davis (born June 2, 1954) is an American convicted murderer whose criminal record fueled support for the passage of California's "three-strikes law" for repeat offenders and the involuntary civil commitment act for sex offenders and predators. He was convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder with special circumstances (burglary, robbery, kidnapping, and an attempted lewd act upon a child under the age of 14) of a 12-year-old Polly Klaas. Davis abducted Polly on October 1, 1993, from her home in Petaluma, California and murdered her a few hours later; he led investigators to her mummified and skeletonized remains on December 4 of the same year, the day before searches for her body were to recommence.

A Santa Clara County jury rendered a death verdict on August 5, 1996. After the verdict was read, Davis stood and made an obscene finger gesture at the courtroom camera with both hands. Later, at his formal sentencing, he read a statement during which he claimed that Polly had said to him, "Just don't do me like my dad," right before he killed her. However, no evidence supports that Polly had ever been sexually abused by her father, Marc. Marc attempted to lunge at Davis but was restrained by the bailiffs, leaving the courtroom to avoid causing further commotion. Judge Thomas C. Hastings proceeded to formally sentence Davis to death, saying, "Mr. Davis, this is always a traumatic and emotional decision for a judge. You made it very easy today by your conduct." As of March 2022, he remains on California's death row in the Adjustment Center at San Quentin State Prison.

Davis was born to Robert Davis and Evelyn Smith in San Francisco, the third of their five children. He has two older brothers named Donald and Ronald and two younger sisters named Darlene and Patricia (deceased). He is of partial Northern Paiute heritage through his maternal grandmother, Norma Wasson Johnny, with whom he and his family lived for a time before his father moved them into a house in La Honda.

His early life was disadvantageous; his parents were both alcoholics and his mother had once punished him and his brothers for smoking by burning their hands on a hot stove. His mother had also held his hands to a hot stove for playing with matches when he was three. He witnessed many violent domestic disputes between his parents, who separated when he was 9, leading his mother to take him and his siblings back to their maternal grandmother. The couple divorced when Davis was 11, and the children were given the choice of whom they would like to live with; Davis and his sisters chose their father while his brothers chose their mother, although Donald would later join his father. Robert, a longshoreman, was frequently unable or unwilling to care for his children, so he had them shuttled among family members, hired caretakers, and women he was romantically involved with. Robert was mentally unstable and suffered from hallucinations; he was reported to have taken a gun outside the home and shot at mirages. He would also beat Richard, breaking his jaw on one occasion and pushing him through an interior wall on another, and was known to be harsh with the others. Robert remarried twice, and Richard resented both of his stepmothers.

When he was 14, Richard's 10-year-old sister Patricia died of an illness. By the time he entered his teens, Davis was already involved in criminal actions. When he was 12, he was placed on probation for burglary and forgery, and burglary again when he was 15. He dropped out of school in his sophomore year of high school. He told a psychiatrist that stealing relieved whatever "tensions" were building up inside him. At 17, when Davis was in court for a motorcycle theft, a judge told him that he could either go to the California Youth Authority or join the United States Army. He chose the latter and received a general discharge after 13 months of service.

On October 12, 1973, Davis went to a party at the home of 18-year-old Marlene Voris. That night, Voris was found dead of a gunshot wound. There were seven suicide notes at the scene. The police concluded that she committed suicide, although friends of Voris believe Davis murdered her. In 1977, he told a psychiatrist that her death had deeply affected him. He had heard her voice in his head and that, at times, another woman's voice would appear, telling him that she wanted to be assaulted, robbed, or raped. A few weeks after Voris' death, Davis was arrested for attempting to pawn property he had stolen. He confessed to a string of burglaries in La Honda and served six months in the county jail. Five weeks after his release, on May 13, 1974, he was arrested for another burglary. He was sentenced to 6 months to 15 years in prison; however, he was released on parole after serving a year of his sentence.

Davis has been diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and schizoid personality disorder.

In July 2006, Davis was found unconscious in his cell following an opiate overdose, but was resuscitated.

On June 1, 2009, the California Supreme Court upheld Davis' death sentence. Davis had argued that his jailhouse confession was inadmissible because it was given without an attorney present. The court ruled this was justified by the public safety exception to ''Miranda v. Arizona''. His lawyer, Phillip Cherney, told reporters he intended to ask for a rehearing and that he would be lodging a habeas corpus appeal with state and federal courts.

References

External links

All About Polly Klaas and Richard Allen Davis, by Denise Noe
– Crime Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Richard Allen
1954 births
Living people
1993 murders in the United States
20th-century American criminals
American male criminals
American murderers of children
American people convicted of assault
American people convicted of burglary
American people convicted of drug offenses
American people convicted of kidnapping
American people convicted of murder
American people convicted of robbery
American people convicted of theft
American people convicted of child sexual abuse
American people of English descent
Paiute people
Criminals of the San Francisco Bay Area
Forgers
People convicted of murder by California
People from San Francisco
People with avoidant personality disorder
People with antisocial personality disorder
People with schizoid personality disorder
Prisoners sentenced to death by California
United States Army soldiers
Criminals from California