Violent Felons Move Forward With Lawsuit Over Their Rights to Parole (NY)

NY Times ^ | December 30, 2007 | SAM ROBERTS

[neverdem]

Last year, a group of violent felons sued the administration of Gov. George E. Pataki, charging that the state was ignoring the law by categorically denying them parole. They figured their chances would improve under his successor, Eliot Spitzer, even though Mr. Spitzer was a tough former prosecutor who supported the death penalty.

In the spring, they were heartened when Mr. Spitzer’s new chairman of the State Parole Board, George B. Alexander, reminded his fellow commissioners that they were obligated to consider the potential for rehabilitation, remorse and recidivism as well as the severity of the original crime.

By fall, lawyers for the plaintiffs and Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo were on the verge of a legal settlement that would have granted 1,000 or so inmates new parole hearings.

At the last minute, word of the settlement was leaked to the press, around the same time that the board approved parole for a man who had taken part in a holdup that led to a police officer’s death. Among the critics was Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association in New York City, who said, “Violent felons should not be eligible for parole, and cop killers should stay incarcerated for life.”

With Mr. Spitzer’s political capital depleted and the governor hardly eager to embark on another unpopular crusade, the Division of Parole, which reports to the governor, rejected the settlement in November.

The decision suggested a deep ambivalence within the governor’s office regarding treatment of convicts. Mr. Spitzer created a commission to study disparities in sentencing, while he imposed curbs on temporary release programs from prison. He issued one pardon, erasing a robbery conviction, since called into question, of a Brooklyn man who had been out of prison for 10 years but was threatened with deportation to his...

[17th Miss Regt]

With Mr. Spitzer’s political capital depleted...

and without any spine whatsoever...

[TheBattman]

I’ve got an idea... just hang all the violent felons, and then no-one has to worry about parole....

[CindyDawg]

So someone should get more time for killing a cop than the average citizen? Well, Isn’t that special.

[Friend_from_the_Frozen_North]

Isn't NY one of those places that doesn't ever want to execute anyone (no matter how violent they are or how heinous their crime was)? I thought that was the whole idea behind the sentence of "Life Without Parole"?

Now the "violent felons" want to sue for the Right to Receive Parole? And, this in a state that almost always rejects a citizen's right to own a handgun and protect themselves from these vermin?

This is certainly not a place I ever want to live again...

[QBFimi]

>> So someone should get more time for killing a cop than the average citizen

Yes, absolutely. Us private citizens rarely put ourselves in harm’s way. Cops do every day. After all, we have other “special citizens” (special status minorities who are attacked by white men). Why the problem here?

[wardaddy]

I would be perfectly happy with all but the nastiest felons having a right to petition to have rights restored short of a presidential pardon.

For 200 years there were plenty of avenues available to reformed criminals to have someone vouch for them and apply for voting, gun and professional rights restoration.

I don’t see why the average felon should have rights revoked permanantly.

Who can apply is arguable but there is no doubt at all that we have more felons today as a percentage than ever...and this needs to be addressed.

I’m sure the FR gallows humour (the kid deserved to die) crowd will be in complete accord..lol

[neverdem]

And, this in a state that almost always rejects a citizen's right to own a handgun and protect themselves from these vermin?

Who told you that about NY? These clowns need money, who cares about the Constitiution?

[Friend_from_the_Frozen_North]

I spent 2 years, 3 months there in the late 1980s; never wanted to stop and kiss the ground of a place when I left as much as I did the night I drove across the NY State line.

The CCW process was completely arbitrary (up to the discretion of the local magistrate) and you had to have 4 character references who have been New York State Residents and who had known you for 5 years. I was a soldier who had NEVER lived in New York previously - there was no way I could comply with that piece of Communist Legalism. I have good friends in New York but I have no desire to live (nor intention to visit) there again.