State Reps. Paul Stam and Nelson Dollar want to know why the state is in such a hurry to release 20 inmates who have served 30 or so years of a "life" sentence.
Stam, an Apex Republican and House minority leader, and Dollar, a Cary Republican, sent a letter to Attorney General Roy Cooper and N.C. Correction Secretary Al Keller urging the officials to slow down on releasing the inmates.
One of the inmates, Bobby Bowden, successfully argued to the N.C. Court of Appeals that he has served his time. When he was convicted of a double murder in Fayetteville, the state defined a life sentence as 80 years and the court found that Bowden had earned enough credit to be released.
The Correction department has calculated that Bowden is one of 20 inmates that must be released this month. Stam and Dollar said that no court is ordering the release.
We are concerned with the haste with which the potential release of these felons is being considered. Only inmate Bowden has filed a motion. His case has been remanded for a hearing to determine sentence reduction credits that he is eligible to receive and how those credits are to be applied. It is premature to consider releasing other prisoners.
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The letter also suggested that the department was miscounted credits for time served. In 1981, the legislature changed the state's sentencing scheme and instituted a system for credit in which offenders would earn virtually a day off the sentence for every good day in prison.
Stam and Dollar say that system was not intended to apply to inmates sentenced before the 1981 law. In 1983, the correction department applied the new scheme to all inmates.
Document(s):
Stam_Dollar letter.pdf
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