MI- Violent cons' release fought

What we have here is, Prosecutors wanting a second shot at the defendant, they want to a quasi-trial all over again. Prosecutors want a way around the laws and Guidelines which were established to govern the system of punishment; they do not agree with the system. Allowing prosecutors a second shot, as it were, circumvents the established system, and is likened to an ex post facto violation....

9-7-2009 Michigan:

State: Those up for parole did their time

Murderers and rapists are being released from prison with little or no input from the people who put them behind bars, say metro Detroit prosecutors, who are leading a fight with the Michigan Department of Corrections over the release of hundreds of violent offenders.

Prosecutors in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties told the Free Press that they have repeatedly tried to get the state to provide a list of convicts being considered for release so they can challenge freeing serious offenders -- but they contend the department isn't cooperating.

A list released by the state was called "largely useless" by Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper because it included only names of inmates and the facilities in which they were housed, not their crimes or the specific dates the parole board expected to interview them.

"I don't know why but they're not being forthright with us," Cooper said.

What prosecutors could decipher is that more than half of the 1,744 felons who were to face the state parole board in June and July were convicted of violent offenses, such as second-degree murder and criminal sexual conduct.

MDOC officials say the prosecutors are unfairly accusing the state of releasing inmates early.

"Every single person the parole board has paroled has served the sentence handed down by the judge," said Russ Marlan, MDOC spokesman.
Public's safety at the heart of legal battle

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper has launched a legal battle against the Michigan Department of Corrections in a feud over which convicts the state plans to release as it tries to save money.

Cooper, who filed a lawsuit earlier this year and last week asked a judge to quickly intervene, is backed by county prosecutors Kym Worthy in Wayne County and Eric Smith in Macomb County -- as well as prosecutors across the state -- who say the MDOC is putting the public's safety at risk by letting some of the most violent offenders back on the streets without giving them a chance to challenge their parole.

The feud is headed to court for a Sept. 16 hearing on the lawsuit in Oakland County Circuit Court. In her latest filing, Cooper accuses the MDOC of breaking the law by denying two requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act to identify potential parolees. Cooper is asking the court to impose a $500-a-day fine until the state complies.

Worthy said dozens of violent offenders -- murderers and rapists included -- already have been released in Wayne County, with more to come.

"It's been a harrowing nightmare," she said.

Russ Marlan, spokesman for the MDOC, said that the people who are being paroled have served at least their minimum sentences, and in many cases, have served more.

"The prosecutors sign off on these sentences," he said. "Prosecutors are fully aware how long a person will spend in prison."

Marlan said the prosecutors' real beef is with Michigan's sentencing guidelines, a point-based system that provides judges with a sentencing window from as little as probation to as much as life imprisonment, depending on factors such as the crime committed and the suspect's past record.

Those windows are broad, sometimes spanning decades between the minimum and maximum amount of time a person is required to spend behind bars on a conviction.

MDOC officials say they've tried to reach a common ground with the prosecutors, meeting with Worthy as recently as Aug. 26.

"We're trying to iron out the misunderstandings," he said Thursday. "It's the parole board's role in the criminal justice system to decide when someone's safe for parole, and they don't take that decision lightly. For anyone to infer that they're putting people out to save money is offensive."

Dennis Schrantz, the corrections department's deputy director, said a four-hour work session is planned for Thursday to create the data system that prosecutors are requesting. The department has made progress in talks with Worthy, he said, but when MDOC officials tried to smooth things out with Cooper, "she sued us."

"She doesn't want to work things out," he said Saturday.

Prosecutors' quest

Cooper filed a motion Aug. 25 asking Oakland County Circuit Judge Nanci Grant to order the MDOC to release monthly updates identifying potential parolees. The filing claims that Cooper's two attempts to get potential parolees' information were illegally denied.

Cooper filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act on May 26 and June 11, requesting the inmate numbers and names of convicts to be interviewed for the rest of 2009. The state first denied the request by saying the records didn't exist, Cooper said.

"And we went: 'Ha, ha, ha -- right,' " she said.

The second, more detailed request was granted in part, though the reply was postmarked four business days later than required by law, the motion states.

That request generated a list released in mid-August that both Cooper and Worthy deemed largely unreadable, requiring both offices to dedicate interns and staffers to try to decipher that information into a spreadsheet. As of Thursday, neither office had completed that work.

Worthy said she managed, through sources she declined to identify, to secure a list of recent parolees from Wayne County.

"I was astounded by what I found," she said. "I found 24 people who had been released for murder in the second degree. I found five people who had been released for child molestation. ... I found people who were the most violent of the violent.

"I was shocked that these were the people they were releasing," Worthy added. "I had no idea."

Worthy said the consequences can be dire: When announcing charges against recent parolee Glen Anthony, the 39-year-old man accused of committing a series of rapes on Detroit's east side, Worthy blasted the MDOC and said Anthony should not have been released from prison.

"That was completely unfair," Marlan said. Anthony had served more than four times the minimum sentence on his latest drug conviction, he said, and he'd previously served 15 years on a 10- to 30-year sentence for second-degree murder.

The most recent conviction, he noted, was on a plea bargain in Macomb County, meaning that prosecutors knew of his prior murder conviction when they agreed to let him plead guilty to avoid trial.

"To say that he was released early is just not true," Marlan said.

'There are going to be mistakes'

The state announced early this year that it would save about $180 million of the annual $2-billion prison budget by accelerating the release of hundreds of prisoners.

Marlan said the MDOC has tried cooperating with county prosecutors, but added that the list of upcoming parole hearings is "very fluid."

The 15-member parole board handles 375 cases a day, he said, and most hearings are set no more than six weeks in advance. Cooper disputes this, saying that the state's database shows hearings scheduled into March 2010.

Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor John Pallas, chief of the county's appellate division, said that many of the people paroled have been sufficiently punished.

"There are offenders where inmates have served well beyond their minimum time, and the parole board was right to exercise its discretion," he said. "The cases we're concerned about are ... the criminal sexual assault cases, murder cases, stalking cases, domestic violence cases. They're the violent, dangerous offenders that the MDOC shouldn't be releasing."

He points to Charles Feuquay, sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison in 1997 on a criminal sexual conduct conviction. Cooper learned of Feuquay's granted parole -- which came more than two years shy of his minimum sentence -- and filed a lawsuit protesting his release. Feuquay remains imprisoned, as he awaits the outcome.

"His victim is absolutely terrified of what this man will do if he's released," Cooper said.

Cooper said prosecutors want more information about potential parolees to ensure that they have attended the schooling and counseling imposed by the sentencing judge. If they haven't, the prosecutors can protest at parole hearings in Lansing.

"Because it's an accelerated release, there are going to be mistakes made," she said. "Anybody who does anything in a hurry with a large volume is going to make mistakes. When this kind of mistake is made, it can result in human suffering." ..Source.. by AMBER HUNT, FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER