Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing: A Discussion with Hillary Blout

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In 1997, Peter Heyberger was convicted of residential burglary and attempted residential burglary. It was his third conviction, and so, under California’s “Three Strikes” law, Mr. Heyberger’s minimum sentence was 25 years to life in prison. He was sentenced to 65-years to life.  

In 2019, California passed HB 2942—a Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing bill that gave California prosecutors the discretion to reevaluate past cases and recommend lower sentences.  And so it was, in 2020, that Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen reviewed Mr. Heyberger’s file and made a recommendation that, after serving twenty-three years of his sentence, led to Mr. Heyberger’s release.  

Hillary Blout is the former California Prosecutor who helped draft and pass the California legislation that paved the way for Mr. Heyberger’s release.  While working as a prosecutor, Hillary came to believe that court sentences were longer than necessary to achieve the goal of rehabilitation.  

She left her job as a prosecutor and began working on sentencing reform.  In 2019, she founded “For the People”—an organization dedicated to passing and implementing Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing laws across the country. She has written for The Washington Post, Newsweek, USA Today, Bloomberg, and the American Bar Association Journal.  At this point she has secured the passage of Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing laws in several states, and her work has led to the resentencing of close to 1,000 people.  

Justin Danilewitz and Geonard Butler spoke with Hillary Blout about her own experience, and the future of Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing.