Bobby Bowden | newsobserver.com projects

Son wants mother's killer locked away

Submitted by bniolet on October 29, 2009 - 6:30am.

LONG SHOT: Every year for the past 20, a Charlotte man has made a pilgrimage to Raleigh to beg strangers to keep the man who killed his mother locked up. This week, he made a desperate move to ask the state Supreme Court to keep Bobby E. Bowden, one of two-dozen lifers who may be released unconditionally, in prison. (N&O)

JOB INFLATION: The government overstated by thousands the number of jobs it created under President Barack Obama's stimulus program. One Colorado company said it created 4,000 jobs. The real number: fewer than 1,000. (AP)

OPT-OUT OUT?: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to unveil health care reform legislation that would include a stronger government-run insurance option than the one moving in the Senate. The bill would not allow states to opt-out of the option.(McClatchy)

Perdue says no release

Submitted by bniolet on October 22, 2009 - 3:59pm.

Tags: Beverly Perdue | Bobby Bowden | N.C. Department of Correction | Under the Dome

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.

Since that ruling, my staff and I have been doing everything we can to stop the release of these rapists and murderers. These are people who have been denied parole repeatedly, and many who have numerous infractions during their prison stay. I do not believe they are ready for release onto the streets of our communities.

Perdue said the good behavior credits that reduced the life sentences may have been incorrectly applied to the inmates, an issue that Republicans have also raised.