As Nick Reiner Faces Possible Death Penalty, When Was California’s Last Execution?

Nick Reiner, charged with killing his parents, could receive the death penalty if convicted — a punishment California has not carried out in nearly two decades.

Reiner, 32, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, who were found dead inside their Los Angeles home on Dec. 14.

If convicted, Reiner could face either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.

Should prosecutors ultimately seek capital punishment, it would be a rare step in California, where the death penalty remains legal but executions have effectively been paused for years. The state last carried out an execution in 2006.

That year, Clarence Ray Allen, 76, was put to death by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison.

Allen had been convicted of orchestrating multiple murders, including ordering the killings of witnesses from inside prison while already serving a life sentence. Prosecutors said he paid a fellow inmate $25,000 to murder people he feared would testify against him.

The plot culminated in a massacre at a Fresno-area grocery store. The fellow inmate, Billy Ray Hamilton, ordered witness Byron Schletewitz and three other employees to lie on the floor before shooting them, killing three people and seriously wounding a fourth, Joe Rios, who survived and later testified. Allen was convicted of the murders in 1982.

In January 2006, Allen was strapped to a gurney at San Quentin State Prison, where he delivered a final statement before his execution.

“My last words will be, Hoka Hey, it’s a good day to die. Thank you very much; I love you all. Goodbye.”

At the time of his execution, Allen was unable to walk and used a wheelchair, and complications from advanced diabetes had left him legally blind. His execution closed a case that had stretched across decades and marked the last time California carried out the death penalty — a history now newly relevant as Reiner’s case moves forward.

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Allen’s criminal history dated back to the 1970s. In 1974, he was convicted in the murder of Mary Sue Kitts, the 17-year-old girlfriend of his son, Kenneth Allen. At the time, California did not have a death penalty statute in place.

Despite the convictions, Allen maintained the public image of a family man, working as a warehouse manager and later owning a security business. Experts later said Allen’s behavior differed from common patterns of criminal conduct.

“The typical pattern is for somebody to be involved in violent activity in their youth, and then, as they get older, for this pattern to abate,” said Dr. Craig Haney, a social psychologist who testified at Allen’s evidentiary hearing in 1997. “In Mr. Allen’s case, it’s turned on its head.”

As Reiner’s case proceeds, prosecutors have not said when they will decide whether to seek the death penalty.

“No decision at this point has been made with respect to the death penalty,” Hochman said at a press conference, adding that his office will take the family’s wishes into consideration.

Reiner did not enter a plea during his first court appearance on Wednesday, Dec. 17. He is due back in court on January 7.