Oct 22 2009
Perdue Says No Get Out of Jail Free
Due to a North Carolina state law that defines a life sentence as 80 years, 20 violent inmates, rapists and murderers, are due to be let out of jail next week. Apparently, they’re getting time off for good behavior. The governor says, no way.
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.
Props to Bev, although I have to say that if the court’s decision stands, she’d be breaking the law, which she is supposed to preside over, by refusing to let them out of jail. I would imagine that would set her up for a contempt of court charge, so I’m skeptical that she will stick to this if push comes to shove. We’ll see.
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I’ll be very curious how she pulls this one off.
Even if they do get out the law will be gunning for them. How right is that?
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Letting those murders, rapist and other felons out of jail is nonsensical. But what is even more ludicrous is the idiots that defined a life sentence as 80 years.
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