NC GOP: What's the hurry on inmates
State Reps. Paul Stam and Nelson Dollar want to know why the state is in such a hurry to release 20 inmates who have served 30 or so years of a "Life" sentence.
Stam, an Apex Republican and House minority leader, and Dollar, a Cary Republican, sent a letter to Attorney General Roy Cooper and N.C. Correction Secretary Al Keller urging the officials to slow down on releasing the inmates.
One of the inmates, Bobby Bowden, successfully argued to the N.C. Court of Appeals that he has served his time. When he was convicted of a double murder in Fayetteville, the state defined a life sentence as 80 years and the court found that Bowden had earned enough credit to be released.
The Correction department has calculated that Bowden is one of 20 inmates that must be released this month. Stam and Dollar said that no court is ordering the release.
"We are concerned with the haste with which the potential release of these felons is being considered. Only inmate Bowden has filed a motion. His case has been remanded for a hearing to determine sentence reduction credits that he is eligible to receive and how those credits are to be applied. It is premature to consider releasing other prisoners."
The letter also suggested that the department was miscounted credits for time served. In 1981, the legislature changed the state's sentencing scheme and instituted a system for credit in which offenders would earn virtually a day off the sentence for every good day in prison.
Stam and Dollar say that system was not intended to apply to inmates sentenced before the 1981 law. In 1983, the correction department applied the new scheme to all inmates.
Gov. Bev Perdue says No release
Gov. Beverly Perdue says she will not release 20 inmates who received life sentences in the 1970s.
Court decisions have said that one of those inmates, Bobby Bowden, appears eligible for release because when he was convicted of a double murder, state law defined a "life" sentence as 80 years. The court said that Bowden appeared to have earned enough credit to qualify for release.
The N.C. Department of Correction identified 20 inmates who would also appear to qualify for release because of their credit for good behavior. Perdue said in a statement that new questions about how the inmates were awarded credit off their sentences will mean the inmates won't get out of prison soon.
"Since that ruling, my staff and I have been doing everything we can to stop the release of these rapists and murderers. These are people who have been denied parole repeatedly, and many who have numerous infractions during their prison stay. I do not believe they are ready for release onto the streets of our communities."
Perdue said the good behavior credits that reduced the life sentences may have been incorrectly applied to the inmates, an issue that Republicans have also raised.
Perdue said that Thursday morning, legal counsel and Department of Correction staff met with officials who oversaw the application of good behavior credits during the 1980s.
"At the time, the DOC gave inmates day-for-day credits under the authority of the then-secretary. There is a real question whether the General Assembly intended for the DOC to have that kind of authority. I do not believe they did, and my legal counsel agrees. This raises the very real question that these inmates should not be eligible for early release."
Sen. Majority Leader Tony Rand said the inmates should not qualify for release.
"Our first responsibility is to public safety. We join Governor Perdue in working to see that these violent criminals stay in prison and that the state does anything and everything in its power to prevent their release. We have had legislative counsel researching this situation for over a week. Based on our review and as an attorney myself, I am confident that the Department of Correction is under no obligation to release these prisoners next week. We have shared our findings with the Attorney General and trust that as the chief law enforcement officer of this state, he will ensure that no one is released until every legal avenue is exhausted."
Attorney General Roy Cooper also released a statement.
"In the interest of public safety and to ensure that sentences and release dates are properly calculated according to law, we have advised the Department of Correction that no prisoners have to be released until further direction from the courts. We continue to believe that these prisoners need to remain behind bars as we have argued for more than two years to the courts."
State forced to free 20 Violent criminals
Twenty murderers, rapists and robbers sentenced to life in North Carolina prisons in the 1970s will be released at the end of October as a result of recent court rulings.
Most of the inmates are in their 50s and 60s, but many of them were convicted years ago of gruesome crimes that might have kept them locked up longer today. One of them successfully petitioned the courts to recognize that old laws defined a life sentence as 80 years, and that another law cut those sentences in half.
Ten of those scheduled to be released were sex offenders, including men who raped young girls. Seven have spent time on death row. The one woman in the group was convicted of murdering a state trooper while fleeing a bank robbery.
State officials said Thursday they have no choice but to release them.
"I am appalled that the state of North Carolina is being forced to release prisoners who have committed the most heinous crimes, without any review of their cases," said Gov. Beverly Perdue.
Thomas Bennett, executive director of the N.C. Victim Assistance Network, worries about the victims' safety and stability.
"This will open new wounds and retraumatize crime victims," Bennett said. "These are bad actors. These are not people we want on the streets."
Perdue's office said she was determined to find a way to keep the inmates in prison, but a spokesman for the state's attorney general said it is unlikely she will prevail.
"Our lawyers have argued just about everything they can think of to keep this from happening," said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper. "The Supreme Court has the final say."
The inmates are scheduled to be released Oct. 29, just 20 days after the N.C. Supreme Court declined to overturn a state Court of Appeals decision that recalculated life sentences applied to crimes committed during the 1970s.
Prison officials expect another eight to 10 inmates a year over the next several years to qualify for release under these new guidelines.
Those inmates due to be released owe their freedom to Bobby Bowden, 60, a former death row inmate convicted in 1975 of killing two Fayetteville men.
In 2005 Bowden appealed to a local judge in Cumberland County, arguing that he had served his "life" sentence. Bowden's pitch failed locally, but last year the state Court of Appeals ruled that Bowden's math was correct. Last week, the state Supreme Court issued a brief upholding the Court of Appeals ruling.
Bowden has spent 36 years in prison. But during a period of years in the 1970s, state law defined a life sentence as 80 years. In 1981, the state's sentencing laws were revised again, applying a retroactive reduction.
Under the changes, sentences levied before 1981 were essentially cut in half. So, dozens of inmates sentenced to life for crimes committed in the 1970s had their terms reduced to 40 years.
Inmates such as Bowden chiseled away at their 40-year sentences even further with "merit time," months and years knocked off their sentences for good behavior, for taking on jobs while in prison and for completing degree programs. All the inmates to be turned loose on Oct. 29 earned some sort of merit credit.
Since 1994, when North Carolina eliminated parole, a life sentence in North Carolina has meant the convict will die behind bars. But only first-degree murder can carry a life sentence, and now, the shortest sentence someone convicted now of first-degree forcible rape can serve is 12 years.
Feverish Preparation
State correction officials have been working furiously to prepare the 20 inmates for their release and alert the victims and their families. Staff spent this week urging relatives of these inmates to take them in on Oct. 29. They have also been trying to track down victims, many of whom have long since lost touch with the court system.
"In some cases, there's shock when we call," said Keith Acree, a DOC spokesman. "In other cases, there's uncertainty. In a lot of cases, the best we can do is leave a message on a machine."
In the meantime, Acree said, some local prosecutors and police are rifling through old court files, looking for crimes with which they never bothered to charge these defendants. Other officials are running the inmates' names in a national crime database to see if they are wanted on crimes outside North Carolina.
"They are looking for any sort of issue that will allow these people to stay locked up," Acree said.
Bowden, the inmate who launched this battle, may be one of the last to leave.
The Court of Appeals sent his case back to a Cumberland County judge to calculate his exact "life sentence" using the new formula. The judge may not have time to figure that new number soon enough for Bowden to join the others leaving prison at the end of the month.
How the State Laws changed:
Over the years, the state legislature has revised the rules for sentencing criminals. The effect of those changes and new court decisions is leading to the pending release of 20 inmates.
Here are the Laws that came into play:
A 1974 law passed by the General Assembly defined a life sentence as 80 years.
A 1981 law cut prisoner's sentences in half, reducing life sentences assigned during a stretch of years in the 1970s to 40 years.
The Department of Correction gives prisoners credit for good behavior, work and education, which can further reduce their sentences.
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, News & Observer, Under The Dome, Charlotte Observer, CBS News, NC General Assembly, Thousand Kites, Google Maps
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