Free Republic

**SNIP** That troubling question is increasingly being repeated at parole hearings across California as the number of inmates with life sentences who are granted release skyrockets under Gov. Jerry Brown. Currently nearly 2,000 murderers, hit men and robbers who spent decades locked up and now range from middle-aged to elderly are trying to find their way. Most succeed, but each month a few more fail, returning to the drugs and crime that put them in prison and raising public safety concerns. California is one of four states in which the governor has final authority over parole decisions. A Times analysis...

The US corrections population dropped to its lowest point since 2003, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday. The number of Americans in prison, jail, parole, or probation dropped to less than 6.9 million in 2013, down 41,500 compared to 2012 and hitting the lowest point since 2003, according to a report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Until 2008, the corrections population had been steadily growing for decades as all levels of government enforced tough-on-crime policies — particularly against drug offenses — that tied up more people in the criminal justice system. But states and the federal government, facing...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The man who killed "Hee Haw" star and Grand Ole Opry performer David "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife, Estelle, four decades ago has been granted parole. Melissa McDonald with the Tennessee Board of Parole told News 2 the board voted Wednesday morning to grant John Brown parole. Brown has served 40 years of his 198-year sentence for killing the Akemans in 1973 as they returned to their home following a performance at the Opry.

FULL TITLE: Two sex offenders accused of the rape and murder of four prostitutes while on parole and wearing GPS trackers face death penalty case after grand jury hearing Two men accused of the rape and murder of four prostitutes while on parole face the possible death penalty after a grand jury in California agreed to send them forward for trial. Steven Dean Gordon, 45 and Franc Cano, 28, both of Anaheim, California were both indicted by the grand jury in Orange County for four felony counts of special circumstances murder during the commission of rape, kidnapping, lying in wait...

A Santa Rosa man convicted for a second time in a series of gang rapes was again sentenced Tuesday to 75 years to life in prison. Rogelio Carlos-Zaragoza, 29, was convicted of abducting women in Santa Rosa in 2006 and 2009 and driving two of them to a remote Windsor vineyard, where he raped them with up to three other men. He was caught with his older brother, Leonel Carlos-Zaragoza, after grabbing an 18-year-old victim at knifepoint along Dutton Avenue and getting in a chase with CHP officers on Highway 101. Both men were convicted in 2010. The brother is...

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Jerry Brown reversed a parole board and denied on Friday the release of a former Charles Manson follower who served more than 43 years in prison. It was the third time a California governor denied the release of Bruce Davis, 71, a member of the murderous Manson Family who was convicted in the 1969 slayings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea.

Charles Manson Granted Parole Corcoran, California – One of the most famous killers in the American prison system will be walking free. On Tuesday Charles Manson, who is now 79 years old, was granted parole by the California Board of Parole and authorized by California Governor Jerry Brown. According to California Board of Parole Hearings Commissioner John Peck, prison overcrowding forced the prison board to re-evaluate prisoners that are elderly or those with serious illnesses. In February a panel of federal judges ordered California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) two more years to reduce chronic prison overcrowding that has cost the...

Rene Lima-Marin had been free for nearly 6 years. Living a good life with his wife and children since his release in 2008, but that was all about to change for the convicted armed robber. Marin, originally from Aurora, Colorado opened the door this past January, 2014 only to discover the police who were there to arrest him. In the end, a court clerk’s error led to the release of Marin, 90 years to soon. Colorado authorities did not discover the mistake till January and immediately sent him back to prison to serve the rest of his 98 year sentence....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Manson Family member Bruce Davis, who was sentenced to life in prison for two 1969 murders carried out with other members of the cult, was granted parole on Wednesday by a California parole board, although it was not certain he would be freed. Davis' parole must still be affirmed by California Governor Jerry Brown, who reversed a similar decision by the same board last year, saying that the 71-year-old convicted killer remained a danger to the public.

**SNIP** In their 2012 appearances before parole officials, both men admitted their roles in killing officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones, 33. The officers were shot multiple times after they'd responded to a report of a domestic dispute at a Harlem housing complex on May 21, 1971. Prosecutors said it was a trap set by Bell and Bottom. "I began to see things in a way that I wanted to come clean," Bell said in 2012, according to a transcript. "I wanted to accept that fact that I committed this offense, I wanted to show remorse, but I didn't really...

Former U.S. Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna has won parole and will be released from Fort Leavenworth on March 14, his mother, Vicki Behenna, said Wednesday. Behenna, who was convicted of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone, learned early Wednesday morning and called his parents in Edmond, where he will return next month. “We go between tears and laughing,” Vicki Behenna told The Oklahoman. “I’m just so thankful. I’m just so very very thankful. It’s wonderful.”

Why would someone who opposes draconian federal mandatory minimum sentences oppose efforts to cut California's prison population by about 9,600 inmates? Because the federal system and the California system are two different animals. U.S. prosecutors have been known to throw the full weight of the federal government toward putting low-level, nonviolent offenders away for decades. In California, the focus has been on violent and serious offenders. In the past several years, Sacramento has reduced the state prison population by about a quarter, or more than 40,000 inmates. Gov. Jerry Brown's 2011 "realignment" plan diverted nonviolent, non-serious and non-sex offenders to...

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — O.J. Simpson has been granted parole on some charges stemming from his 2008 kidnapping and armed robbery convictions involving the holdup of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas hotel room. The Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners on Wednesday released an order approving the former NFL star's parole request.

O.J. Simpson pleaded for leniency Thursday, telling a parole panel he deeply regretted robbing two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room and has tried to be a model inmate while behind bars. "I just wish I never went to that room," he said. "I wish I just said keep it."

LOS ANGELES— This post has been corrected. See the note below. After 11 failed bids for freedom, notorious killer Charles Manson, now 77, is up for parole later this month. The parole board rejected his bid in 2007, saying Manson [For the record, 9:42 a.m. April 5: An earlier version of this post incorrectly gave the killer's last name as Mason.] "continues to pose an unreasonable danger to others and may still bring harm to anyone he would come in contact with." Manson refused to participate in that hearing, describing himself as a "prisoner of the political system." He also...

A parole board on Wednesday rejected Manson family member Leslie Van Houten's 19th attempt to win freedom. The board also decided she could not seek parole again for five years. Van Houten, 63, was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home in Los Feliz. She has repeatedly been denied bids for parole over the last four decades. “Given the brutality of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and Van Houten’s willing and active participation in this evil, pre-planned and violent crime, we are pleased with the parole board’s decision...

FULL TITLE: Couple return home from cinema to find their grandparents murdered and a naked man sexually abusing their daughter, 2, after he was released from jail for IDENTICAL attack four years ago A couple returned home from the cinema to find a naked man had beaten their grandparents to death and was raping their two-year-old daughter. Touch Chea, 71, and his wife, Sorn Sreap, 73, were found dead in Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday night from significant blunt force injuries. Police said both Sreap and the toddler were raped. Officers arrested Jerry Andrew Active, 24, as he fled the east...

A former top lieutenant to polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs who was sentenced last year to a decade in prison is scheduled to be released on parole next week, Texas prison officials said Thursday. Wendell Loy Nielsen, the former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was convicted in March 2012 on three counts of bigamy and given a 10-year prison term. Nielsen and 11 other FLDS members were indicted after a 2008 police raid at the church's remote West Texas compound, known as the Yearning for Zion ranch. He was accused of marrying three...

Warren Watson, a Colorado prison parolee who fled from parole and confessed to a murder in Lakewood, had a long history of such escapes but had still been placed on a comparatively low level of supervision by Colorado’s Division of Parole. ... a series of missteps, miscommunications and questionable judgments in the Watson case, much like in the case of parolee Evan Ebel, who is suspected of murdering Colorado’s Corrections Director and a young father while Ebel was on parole. The parole department is examining its handling of the Ebel case. Internal Colorado parole records now show that the Colorado...

California Gov. Jerry Brown is considering whether to grant parole to a convicted murderer who followed notorious killer Charles Manson, a spokeswoman for the governor said. Brown's office received a formal recommendation from the state board parole Friday to release Bruce Davis, 70, who would be the first Manson "family" member to secure freedom solely for good behavior. Brown has 30 days -- or until March 3 -- to either modify, affirm or reverse the parole board's recommendation, a corrections spokeswoman said. In 2010, Davis secured his first formal recommendation for parole by the state board, but then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger...