Gov. Schwarzenegger is to be commended for the change in policy his adminstration has made in the granting of parole--an area in which Gray Davis' record was simply abysmal.

Convicted in 1991 of a murder he insists he didn't commit, the former real estate agent maintained his innocence despite offers of a plea deal and urgings to express remorse. Then in 2002, relatives told the state parole board they'd heard Riojas' estranged father, a drug dealer and smuggler, confess to the killing shortly before his own death. The board, without any objection from the prosecutors who sent Riojas to prison, granted him parole.

Their recommendation then was sent to Gov. Gray Davis who, having publicly vowed to keep convicted murderers in prison for life, rejected it. But a year later, after an unexpected change in state leadership, Riojas is free, one of the 31 convicted murderers and kidnappers paroled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first seven months in office. That's nearly four times the eight life-term inmates who were granted parole during Davis' 4 1/2 years as governor.

Score one for Gov. Arnold.

Schwarzenegger's legal secretary, Peter Siggins, credits the change to a difference in philosophy. "He is a governor who believes people can reform and be reformed."

Now we want to see the Governor go a little further and not reverse as many favorable parole board recommendations as he has to date--he's nowhere near as bad as Gray Davis was, but we think he can do better than this: