The Archie Buggs slaying

In Novem­ber 1978, 17-year-old Je­sus Ce­cena fatally shot San Diego Po­lice Of­ficer Arch­ie Buggs dur­ing a traffic stop. He was con­victed of first-de­gree murder in the ex­e­cu­tion-style killing. Now, Ce­cena could soon be freed from pris­on un­der a state law that took ef­fect Jan. 1 aimed at hasten­ing pa­role for in­mates serving lengthy sen­tences for crimes com­mit­ted be­fore they turned 18. Here is a tran­script of Ce­cena’s April pa­role hear­ing, a let­ter from San Diego County Dist. Atty. Bon­nie Du­manis op­pos­ing his re­lease and archiv­al Los Angeles Times cov­er­age of the killing.

San Diego County Dist. Atty. Bon­nie Du­manis’ let­ter to Gov. Jerry Brown op­pos­ing the grant­ing of pa­role to Je­sus Ce­cena.

The pa­role hear­ing for Je­sus Ce­cena took place at Val­ley State Pris­on in Chow­chilla, Cal­if., on April 9, 2014.

On Nov. 9, 1978, The Times re­por­ted that San Diego Po­lice Of­ficer Arch­ie Buggs, 30, was bur­ied with full mil­it­ary hon­ors after be­ing eu­lo­gized by San Diego May­or Pete Wilson as “one of the finest in the de­part­ment be­cause of the hu­man be­ing he was un­der the badge.”

On Nov. 10, 1978, The Times re­por­ted that the shoot­ing death of a San Diego po­lice of­ficer had touched off a con­tro­versy with­in po­lice ranks there, with sev­er­al angry of­ficers con­tend­ing that Buggs would not have died had the Po­lice De­part­ment routinely as­signed two of­ficers to patrol cars in­stead of just one.