In this Oct. 23, 2018, file photo, Borey Ai poses for a photo at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco. Ai spent 19 years in prison before parole officials decided he'd turned his life around and he walked out of San Quentin in Nov. 2016 and into the waiting arms of federal immigration agents. In a rare step, the California Supreme Court has blocked Gov. Jerry Brown's attempt to issue a pardon to a 37-year-old man Cambodian refugee facing deportation for killing and robbing a woman when he was 14 years old. The court offered no public explanation for its rejection on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 of Borey Ai's pardon. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
For the first time in 88-years, the California Supreme Court is blocking a governor’s pardon. Without explanation, the state’s high court has rejected Governor Jerry Brown’s pardon of 37-year-old Borey Ai, who served 19-years in prison for a murder he committed at the age of 14. He was paroled in 2016 and the Governor’s Office says he has lived “an honest and upright life” since. Even though the state Constitution allows it, the court said earlier this year it would only block a pardon if justices felt it was an abuse of power. It hasn’t explained what about this pardon it considered an abuse.
As a convicted felon, Ai is subject to deportation to Cambodia, a country his family fled because of violence there and he was born in a refugee camp. He isn’t a citizen, but he is a legal resident of the United States, where he’s lived since the age of four. His attorneys plan to appeal his case to federal courts.