In 1978, 21-year-old Theresa Graybeal was buying food for her dogs when she was carjacked by a group of four people who told her that they needed to get to Fresno to buy drugs. Then, they pulled over outside of Fresno, and Graybeal would die on the side of the road there, from a gunshot wound to the head.
Five people were arrested: According to Indian Country Today, two were sentenced to 12 years, one was given five years, another — a minor — was granted immunity for his testimony, and Douglas Stankewitz was convicted of being the one who pulled the trigger. He was sentenced to death.
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Stankewitz has long maintained his innocence. While he was in the car that night, he says (via The Marshall Project) that he wasn’t the one who killed her or carjacked her. Fast forward to 2012, and new information meant the sentence was reduced to life without parole, a reduction that took seven years to happen. Fast forward again, and Stankewitz is San Quentin’s longest death row resident.
When he gave an interview in 2022, he’d been there for 44 years — and he’d only felt grass five times. He counted his time in isolation in years (including seven for refusing to go against his Native American beliefs and cut his hair), didn’t have a mattress anymore, and has the same day-to-day he has for decades. As of the interview, he was waiting to find out if he could be paroled.
