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| Study examines parole for lifers after 25 years |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/20/2005 |
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In Pennsylvania, "life means life" in murder sentencing. But, in the future, murderers should be eligible to apply for parole after 25 years in prison and after reaching age 50, according to a proposal by a divided legislative advisory panel. Releasing older inmates, including lifers, could help save the prison system on health care costs and make prisons easier to manage, authors said in a 256-page report presented to legislators last Monday. The report was the product of two years of research by the Advisory Committee on Geriatric and Seriously Ill Inmates, a 46-member panel made up of prosecutors, judges, victim advocates, health care experts and other criminal justice experts. The advisory panel did not reach a consensus on the release of lifers but rather presented all its findings as a set of options the General Assembly could consider, some in the form of draft bills. They included giving judges and juries more sentencing options and creating a new category of "medical release" for seriously or terminally ill patients. One contentious suggestion was that people convicted of murdering someone before they turned age 21 could be eligible to apply for release at age 45 if they served 25 years in prison. Others who committed murder after age 21 would be eligible at age 50 if they served 25 years, the proposal said. Parole for murderers should not be automatic, according to the report. "Parole eligibility means that an inmate may be considered for parole. It does not mean that the inmate will be immediately released or ever granted parole," the authors wrote. However, the potential for release of prisoners serving life sentences generated "strenuous objections" from the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association and the state Office of the Victim Advocate. "At its most fundamental level, there are two lives involved in this discussion: the life of the offender and the extinguished life of the murdered victim," the two groups said in a statement. Under current law, first-degree murder carries a death sentence or life in prison without parole and second-degree murder carries a mandatory life prison sentence without parole. |
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