Editorial:
The Coastland Times
October 20, 2009
Life Sentences
Governor Beverly Perdue says she is "appalled that the state of North Carolina is being forced" to release from jail later this month 20 convicts sentenced to life for violent crimes. She is not alone. "In some cases, there's shock," said a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. "Ten of those scheduled to be released were sex offenders," one news report added, "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." That was 30 or more years ago. Most of the convicts are now in their 50s and 60s. Still, "these are bad actors," said the executive director of the N.C. Victim Assistance Network. "These are not people we want on the streets." Nonetheless, the 20 are to be released Oct. 29 because the state Supreme Court declined to overturn a state Court of Appeals decision concerning life sentences applied to crimes committed during the 1970s. Prison officials expect another eight to 10 inmates a year to be released over the next several years under the ruling. But are the courts to blame? It was a conservative, anti-crime Appeals Court judge who wrote the decision that frees these people. The judge carefully studied the law as revised by the state legislature – our elected officials – when the prevailing thought was that lengthy sentences are not a deterrent to crime. For years, the law had been that a life sentence was 80 years, but in 1981 the General Assembly halved that, retroactively, to 40 years with extra credit for good behavior. The law has since been revised once again so that today a life sentence means just that. But because the Constitution does not permit the state to impose punishments greater than those in effect at the time of a crime, the 20 "bad actors" will be released from prison next week. They have served their life sentences in terms of a law enacted by state legislators more than a quarter of a century ago. We are now seeing the consequences of their decision and beliefs back then. ~