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The Queen (aka "mrsmuir") SWBB
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Families worry bill could help accused Santa Fe shooter win early parole
March 12, 2019
"Families of those killed and injured in Texas’ deadliest K-12 school shooting last May are raising concerns that a bill to allow parole boards to review cases of juvenile inmates more quickly could reduce the amount of time accused Santa Fe gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis could spend in prison.
The bill, House Bill 256, would let a juvenile inmates who have been sentenced to life plead their cases in front of a parole board 20 years after being convicted, halving the 40-year period they now must wait.
While the bill would not guarantee such inmates would be granted parole that early, families of the 10 people killed and 13 injured in the Santa Fe High School shooting say even the possibility of the accused shooter being let out early is cause for outrage.
Steve Perkins, whose wife Ann was killed in the May 18 massacre, said he and several others plan to travel to Austin to testify against the bill during a public hearing Wednesday. He said he worries that a parole board hearing Pagourtzis’ case may be more sympathetic in 20 years, when memories of the incident have faded. He bemoaned the fact that under existing Texas law, Pagourtzis cannot be sentenced to death or life without parole.
“They took the death penalty from us, and he only had to serve 40 years before he could be paroled. Now they want to cut that in half?” Perkins said. “Why not just make it a misdemeanor and give him a traffic ticket?”...
Sahualla said he cannot imagine a parole board giving leniency to someone who killed 10 people and tried to murder more when he was 17.
“While it’s true the Santa Fe case would be affected, I can’t imagine a parole board saying this is one case where we need to let him out,” Sahualla said.
That assumption means little to John Conard, whose nephew Jared Conard Black was killed at Santa Fe High School. He plans to travel from Midland to speak at the public hearing in Austin. He worried that allowing family, medical professionals and clergy to vouch for any potential transformations of the accused gunman could make it more likely he will get out early if he is convicted.
“I don’t think he deserves a second chance,” Conard said. “There may be individual cases the statute provides for, 15- or 16-year-olds who made a terrible mistake, but the victims deserve more consideration than the offenders, especially in a capital murder case.”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...bill-could-help-accused-Santa-Fe-13683597.php
March 12, 2019
"Families of those killed and injured in Texas’ deadliest K-12 school shooting last May are raising concerns that a bill to allow parole boards to review cases of juvenile inmates more quickly could reduce the amount of time accused Santa Fe gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis could spend in prison.
The bill, House Bill 256, would let a juvenile inmates who have been sentenced to life plead their cases in front of a parole board 20 years after being convicted, halving the 40-year period they now must wait.
While the bill would not guarantee such inmates would be granted parole that early, families of the 10 people killed and 13 injured in the Santa Fe High School shooting say even the possibility of the accused shooter being let out early is cause for outrage.
Steve Perkins, whose wife Ann was killed in the May 18 massacre, said he and several others plan to travel to Austin to testify against the bill during a public hearing Wednesday. He said he worries that a parole board hearing Pagourtzis’ case may be more sympathetic in 20 years, when memories of the incident have faded. He bemoaned the fact that under existing Texas law, Pagourtzis cannot be sentenced to death or life without parole.
“They took the death penalty from us, and he only had to serve 40 years before he could be paroled. Now they want to cut that in half?” Perkins said. “Why not just make it a misdemeanor and give him a traffic ticket?”...
Sahualla said he cannot imagine a parole board giving leniency to someone who killed 10 people and tried to murder more when he was 17.
“While it’s true the Santa Fe case would be affected, I can’t imagine a parole board saying this is one case where we need to let him out,” Sahualla said.
That assumption means little to John Conard, whose nephew Jared Conard Black was killed at Santa Fe High School. He plans to travel from Midland to speak at the public hearing in Austin. He worried that allowing family, medical professionals and clergy to vouch for any potential transformations of the accused gunman could make it more likely he will get out early if he is convicted.
“I don’t think he deserves a second chance,” Conard said. “There may be individual cases the statute provides for, 15- or 16-year-olds who made a terrible mistake, but the victims deserve more consideration than the offenders, especially in a capital murder case.”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...bill-could-help-accused-Santa-Fe-13683597.php
