Parole Denied to Santa Cruz Lawyer Who Stabbed Wife 29 Times

Kenneth Donney, who  was convicted in 1995 for stabbing his wife, Nina Leibman, 29 times in front of his 7-year-old son, was denied parole Tuesday and will continue his 16-years-to-life sentence.

Donney was an attorney who had an argument with is wife over their pending divorce that ended in violence in the family's home, with children present. Prosecutors David Sherman and Michael McKinney traveled to San Luis Obispo State to argue against the release of Donney, now 65, in his second bid for parole.

Donney's son, now 23, told the Parole Board how he heard his mother screaming "I don't want to die" while his father screamed "You should have thought of that before!" Donney's son concluded his statement to the parole board by saying to the inmate "You're not my father. You forfeited that right when you murdered my mother. I don't want to see you, hear from you, or have any contact with you for the rest of my life."

Donney had always insisted that he had no memory of stabbing his wife and that he must have been in a "dissociated mental state" at the time of the murder. However, he now claims that years of therapy have "recovered" the memory of his wife coming at him with a knife and he was forced to take it away from her, according to a press release by Santa Cruz District Attorney Bob Lee.

There was no evidence that Donney used drugs or alcohol that night. There is no history of mental illness or "dissociated mental state" in Donney's background.

Sherman argued that this was a brutal and senseless crime and that Donney should be denied parole because he has not been punished enough for the senseless and violent nature of the crime he committed; he has never fully admitted the truth of how the crime happened; and also because he has not demonstrated adequate insight or rehabilitation during his incarceration, according to Lee's release.

 Donney is not eligible to apply for parole again for the next five years.