PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A Rhode Island bill designed to prevent convicted murderers from winning early release doesn’t go far enough to punish offenders but it’s a start, several state lawmakers say.
Except for inmates serving life sentences, the bill would require anyone convicted of first- or second-degree murder to serve at least half their sentence before being eligible for parole. Currently, they must serve one-third of their term.
Several lawmakers said on the House floor Thursday that convicted murderers should serve even longer. Many said they support the measure out of respect for victims’ families and because the primary purpose of a sentence is punishment.
“As far as I’m concerned, 100 years is not enough,” said Democratic Rep. James McLaughlin of Cumberland.
The Senate approved the bill in April and the House passed a version Thursday on a 69-3 vote. Each bill is expected to pass the other chamber before being sent to Gov. Gina Raimondo for her consideration. A spokeswoman for the governor said Friday that Raimondo plans to evaluate the legislation in the coming weeks.
Also under the bill, convicted murderers serving life sentences would have to serve at least 25 years before parole eligibility, instead of 20 years, and no person sentenced to life for a crime other than first- or second-degree murder would be eligible for parole until they served at least 20 years.
The measure, if it gets final approval, would only apply to those convicted after it becomes law.
Democratic Rep. Arthur Corvese of North Providence said Thursday the legislature has a duty to protect society, and he questioned why anyone wouldn’t want convicted murderers to serve at least half their sentence.
Last year, Democratic Sen. Leonidas Raptakis of Coventry and Democratic Rep. Patricia Serpa of West Warwick introduced the measure after the 2013 release of Alfred Brissette, who served 13 years of a 35-year sentence for the death of a Woonsocket woman he and an accomplice prosecutors say picked at random. The legislation passed in the Senate but wasn’t acted on in the House.
Raptakis, who believes convicted murderers shouldn’t be eligible for early release, said too many of them get out of prison early.
“Our bottom line message is, ’You commit a murder, you’re going to spend a lot more time in jail,’” he said Friday.
But Rep. Edith Ajello argued on the House floor Thursday that people can be rehabilitated and the state has empowered the parole board to make that decision. The Democrat from Providence’s east side said no one has complained about Brissette since his release.
In response, Serpa pointed to cases where convicted killers were released then accused or convicted of murder again.
The House took up the legislation this year after it was rewritten to distinguish between murderers and non-murderers and between people sentenced to life versus a term of years, according to Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello.
As written, the bill could lead to rare occasions when convicted murderers sentenced to life would be eligible for parole before those sentenced to a term of years, such as a 60-year sentence. But Raptakis said he didn’t think judges would allow that to happen. If it did, he said, he suspected an outraged General Assembly would tweak the bill’s language.
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