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Experts: Inmates will be set free
Law on life sentences is clear, professors say
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Gov. Bev Perdue is fighting a court ruling ordering the release of 27 inmates convicted of violent crimes during the 1970s.
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Published: October 29, 2009
Gov. Bev Perdue can stall but not stop the release of 27 inmates convicted of violent crimes in the 1970s, legal experts say.
The inmates, convicted in the 1970s of crimes that included murder, rape and robbery, are eligible for release because of credits -- time off their sentences -- they have earned during their time in prison.
Bobby E. Bowden, a Cumberland County man serving life in prison for killing two people in 1975, successfully argued in court that he had served his time under state law at the time he was convicted.
Bowden said that he has accumulated enough credits to cut his sentence from 80 years to 40 years, making him eligible for release this year.
The N.C. Supreme Court agreed, upholding a lower-court ruling saying that state law defined a life sentence as 80 years for inmates convicted in the 1970s.
The court's decision becomes official today, 20 days after it was issued.
State corrections officials are reviewing the inmates' cases to determine how many credits they have earned.
Perdue is trying to delay the inmates' release, arguing that they shouldn't have gotten the credits in the first place.
But legal experts say that the law that was in effect when the inmates were sentenced is clear.
"There's nothing for us to be debating," said Carol Turowski, a law professor at Wake Forest University and a co-director of the school's Innocence and Justice Clinic.
Inmates can get time off, or credits, for good conduct, attending classes or working.
There are three kinds of credit -- good time, gain time and merit time, said Keith Acree, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Correction.
The 27 inmates -- including three convicted in Forsyth County -- scheduled for release have earned some combination of all three credits, which has significantly reduced the time they have to spend in prison.
In 1981, the Fair Sentencing Act was passed, and inmates became eligible for getting time shaved off their sentences, Acree said. The secretary of correction extended the credits to inmates convicted before 1981, regardless of their crimes, he said.
Perdue said that the secretary of correction overstepped his authority, but according to general statutes, he had the discretion to give the credits to inmates who were sentenced to life before 1981.
"It's understandable people's fears about having individuals convicted of violent crimes back in the general population," Turowski said. "However, individuals are released from jail with violent backgrounds all the time."
About 28,000 inmates are released from North Carolina prisons each year, Acree said, some of whom are violent.
And the law is clear that when these inmates were convicted, a life sentence meant 80 years, Turowski said.
Jim Coleman, a law professor at Duke University, accused Perdue of political grandstanding. She has an obligation to respect the law, he said, even if she doesn't like it.
"This is about the law," Coleman said. "It isn't about this political crap."
Tim Crowley, a Perdue spokesman, said that the inmates pose a threat to the general public and that there are legal issues that must be resolved.
"She and her legal counsel believe there's a strong argument that can be made in the courts, and is committed to looking at every legal option," Crowley said.
Many of these inmates were initially sentenced to death, he said.
Turowski said she understands that people are upset, but the law is the law.
"Even if the public doesn't like the result, even if the governor doesn't like the result, we are a nation of laws, not of men and women, and therefore, the law has to stand," she said.
mhewlett@wsjournal.com
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