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| Crime victims given opportunity to talk with parole board members |
| By macon.com - AMY LEIGH WOMACK |
| Published: 04/16/2012 |
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It’s been a year and a half since Debra Plummer’s granddaughter was killed, shot outside her Macon apartment building. Terrilyn Williams, the girl she’d raised from the age of 12, had grown into a young woman, a 20-year-old mother of four young children. Williams’ oldest child, 7-year-old Tavoris, still cries for his mother, who died Sept. 22, 2010, Plummer said. The sense of loss is still strong for Plummer, who sat through the trial of the teenager who fired the gun that cut short her granddaughter’s life. She visits Williams’ grave at Macon Memorial Park seasonally, on holidays and on her granddaughter’s birthday to decorate it with flowers. “Pink was her favorite color,” Plummer said. “I miss her.” On Monday, Plummer will travel to the Georgia Department of Corrections headquarters in Forsyth to speak with parole board members, share pictures of her slain granddaughter and talk about the two people convicted in her killing. A Victims Visitors’ Day is being held beginning at 10 a.m. in conjunction with National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. Since the first victims’ day was held in Macon in 2006, crime victims and their families have been given the opportunity to learn more about offenders’ cases, register to receive notifications of parole hearings and ask questions about prison life and the parole process, said Shalandra Robertson, director of Victim Services for the state Department of Corrections and Board of Pardons and Paroles. Often victims have questions about an offender’s sentence or want a better understanding of prison life, she said. Representatives from multiple agencies will be on hand to help inform victims of available services. The event also is a rare opportunity for victims to talk directly to the five parole board members, the people who could one day decide whether an offender is released from prison early, Robertson said. Most people think victims have an opportunity to speak at parole hearings when, in fact, board members make decisions by reading an offender’s file, she said. Victims often bring pictures and write letters that are included in offenders’ files so parole board members can see them when an offender is being considered for release, Robertson said. “This is an opportunity for a victim to come and face-to-face voice their point of view,” said Terry Barnard, a parole board member. Read More. |
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