Last week the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected the latest attempt by William L. Huff to secure his release from prison where he is serving one of the sentences imposed on him for killing two Sierra Vista girls in 1967.
Huff, now in his early 70s, filed a petition for special action in April seeking a court order to reduce his life sentence in state prison “on grounds of compassion.” But on June 3, the court rejected the petition without consideration because Huff failed to provide proof his compassion argument has already been addressed by the Cochise County Superior Court.
Back in 1967, Huff pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the April 1967 brutal killing of Cindy Clelland, 7, whose undressed body was found several days after she disappeared from a Sierra Vista neighborhood. She had been strangled, beaten with a rock, stabbed, and disemboweled.
After McClelland’s murder, the Sierra Vista Police Department received a hand-written letter signed by “The Phantom” in which he threatening to kill another girl. That girl ended up being Jenelle Haines, 6, who disappeared on Fort Huachuca a few weeks after Clelland’s murder.
Huff was convicted in a federal court of killing Haines, who was also found undressed and brutally attacked. At the time of both killings, Huff was 16-years-old.
His 25-year federal sentence for Haines’ death expired years ago, leaving Huff serving the state life sentence which allows for parole after 40 years. In 2015, the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency voted to allow Huff to serve his sentence under house arrest which required electronic monitoring and multiple daily visits from a parole officer even though he was a prisoner, not a parolee.
Then in late 2018, a parole officer found out-of-town relatives of Huff’s girlfriend visiting at the couple’s apartment. The relatives included two children -including a young girl- and their parents. Huff’s home arrest release prohibited any children from being in the home without prior approval from his parole officer, even if a parent is present.
Huff was temporarily returned to prison after the discovery and in January 2019 the clemency board unanimously revoked Huff’s home-arrest. The board also rejected a new application for home arrest later that year.
Since then, Huff has attempted to secure his release by having a court adjust his sentence. Among those steps is a petition for post-conviction relief Huff filed with the presiding judge in Cochise County. The petition argued Huff’s original sentence was illegal and that his case deserved review due to “a significant change in the law.”
Judge James Conlogue dismissed the petition, ruling any claims by Huff about his old conviction or sentence for Clelland’s murder were precluded from consideration due to how much time had elapsed. Huff then petitioned for review from the Arizona Court of Appeals, but he based his argument on errors by the clemency board.
The appellate court denied Huff’s petition in October 2020, ruling that issues about the clemency board had to be argued first with the Cochise County court. Judge Conlogue rejected Huff’s clemency board claim, but a copy of that ruling was not included by Huff in his April petition for special action.
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