Polly Klaas

Polly Hannah Klaas (January 3, 1981 – October 1, 1993) was an American murder victim whose case garnered national media attention. On October 1, 1993, at age 12, she was kidnapped at knifepoint during a slumber party at her mother's home in Petaluma, California, and strangled to death. Richard Allen Davis was convicted of her murder in 1996 and sentenced to death.

Background On October 1, 1993, Polly Klaas and two friends were having a slumber party at the home of Klaas' mother, Eve Nichols. Around 10:30 pm, an intoxicated man named Richard Allen Davis entered her bedroom, carrying a knife from the home’s kitchen. He told the girls that he was there to do no harm and was only there for money. Davis tied up both of her friends, pulled pillowcases over their heads, and told them to count to 1,000. He then kidnapped Klaas. Over the next two months, about 4,000 people helped search for Klaas. Davis was arrested two months after the kidnapping and led the police to Klaas' body, which was buried in a shallow grave in Sonoma County.

Conviction After a long and tumultuous trial, Davis was convicted on June 18, 1996, of first-degree murder with four special circumstances (robbery, burglary, kidnapping, and attempted lewd act on a child) in Klaas' death. A San Jose Superior Court jury returned a sentence of death. At his formal sentencing, Davis provoked national outrage by taunting his victim's family, extending both middle fingers at a courtroom camera and later saying that Klaas' last words just before he killed her implied that her father molested her. Judge Thomas Hastings then formally sentenced Davis to death, telling Davis that his conduct in the courtroom made the decision to pass the death sentence significantly easier. Davis has been on death row since 1996.

Winona Ryder Actress Winona Ryder, who had been raised in Petaluma, offered a $200,000 reward for Klaas' safe return during the search. Ryder starred in a film version of Little Women after Klaas' death and dedicated it to her memory, because it had been Klaas' favorite book.

Aftermath and legacy Klaas' body was cremated and her ashes were spread over the Pacific Ocean by her friends and family. He has made himself available to parents of kidnapped children and has appeared frequently on Larry King Live, CNN Headline News and Nancy Grace.

The all-points bulletin was broadcast on the CHP (California Highway Patrol) channel, which only CHP radios could receive. CHP practice changed after the case. The radio system was upgraded and such bulletins are now broadcast on all police channels through a centralized 911 dispatch system.

In October 1998, a performing arts center was named in her honor in Petaluma, but was closed in 2000 because of building safety issues and a lack of funding. In November 2022, after years of fundraising and building improvements, the Polly Klaas Community Theater reopened.

In the wake of the murder, politicians in California and other U.S. states supported three strikes laws and California's Three Strikes act was signed into law on March 8, 1994.

Media Investigation Discovery dramatizes the kidnapping and murder in Motives & Murder: Cracking the Case: Who Took Polly Klaas? (Season 4 Episode 4, 10/22/2014).

The A&E television series American Justice released the episode "Free to Kill: The Polly Klaas Murder". The episode exposes the challenges of the penal system to rehabilitate inmates. Davis had been in and out of jail, his convictions ranging from kidnapping to burglary. The episode originally aired October 23, 1996.

The Discovery Channel crime series The FBI Files first episode's topic was the Polly Klaas case. The episode reveals the details of the FBI agents' collection of evidence and their hunt for the criminal, and originally aired October 20, 1998.

On May 9, 2022, Crime Junkie released an episode on Polly Klaas and discussed how the case set a precedent for California's Three Strikes law.

ABC aired an episode of 20/20 centered on the Polly Klaas case called Taken In The Night on September 22, 2023.

On January 8, 2024, The New York Times published a guest essay by Polly Klaas's younger sister, Annie Nichol, titled "My Sister Was Murdered 30 Years Ago. True Crime Repackages Our Pain as Entertainment." In the essay, she criticizes media coverage of the kidnapping, problems with the subsequent Three-Strikes law, and encourages media to be attentive to helping survivors heal.

ABC-7 News Bay Area (KGO) aired an episode of ABC7 Originals, "Struck by Justice: The Impact of Polly Klaas" on March 11, 2024. This documentary marked 30 years since California's Three Strikes and You're Out Law.