August 25, 2010
From The News & Observer Newspaper of Raleigh, NC
By Mandy Locke – Staff writer
The N.C. Supreme Court ruled today that two prisoners sentenced to life in the 1970s are not eligible for release, reversing a lower court decision that could have affected dozens of inmates in similar circumstances.
Today’s decision will guide judges across the state who might be met with requests to release inmates sentenced to life in the 1970s.
Lawyers for this special class of inmates had argued that credits for good behavior, work and classes cut some of their sentences in half and that they were due their freedom. Their life terms had been defined as “80 years” by the legislature at the time. The credits, lawyers argued, cut their sentences in half or more in some cases.
In December, Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand ordered the immediate release of two of the inmates, Faye Brown and Alford Jones. Attorneys for the state challenged Rand’s order and won the chance to argue their case before the Supreme Court in February.
At that hearing, lawyers for the state said that inmates sentenced to life couldn’t collect credits for good behavior, work or classes.
They said the court didn’t have the authority to obligate the Secretary of the Department of Correction to award those credits.
The Supreme Court agreed in a 5-2 split decision.
Justice Robert H. Edmunds Jr. wrote the majority opinion. He ruled that the Department of Correction had never applied credits for good behavior to the 1970s lifers and couldn’t be forced to do so now.
None of the justices disputed that life sentences imposed between 1974 and 1978 are 80 years. The issue before them was whether credits set out in DOC rules could shorten those sentences.
Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson disagreed with the majority, saying that prison officials had applied the credits and should be bound to honor that now.
It is possible that lawyers for the defendants could now turn to the federal courts for relief.
It’s been a long, heated debate. Lawyers for the prisoners say that public and political pressure may have influenced the court’s decision.
“The sad subtext is that if you can bring political pressure through the media by harnessing the media to create a political issue, it won’t hurt your chances,” said Staples Hughes, North Carolina’s appellate defender.
The fate of the inmates became a public issue last fall when the state Supreme Court affirmed a Court of Appeals ruling that life sentences imposed during parts of the 1970s were limited to 80 years. Since then, Gov. Bev Perdue, legislators and lawyers for the inmates have debated how much credit for good behavior those prisoners are entitled to collect and whether it means some of them should be released.
After initially saying she had not choice but to release the inmates, Perdue pledged she would fight to keep the inmates locked up.
“We can all sleep a little sounder tonight knowing that violent prisoners will not be released into our communities without review or supervision,” Perdue said in a statement this afternoon. “One hundred and thirty three violent criminals will remain behind bars because of today’s decision.”
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