Parole board should be more skeptical

We’d like to believe a murderer can be rehabilitated.

And as we all know, a life sentence doesn’t mean life in prison. Many killers are eventually released to live among us and we must trust that Canada’s parole board has the public’s safety in mind as well as the inmate’s prospects for rehabilitation when it approves such releases.

In most cases, the board acts gradually, with short-term escorted releases first, and more privileges granted later.

The idea is to prepare inmates for life outside prison and lay the groundwork for their return to society.

But there’s a limit to public patience and understanding, and that limit may have been exceeded last week with the news of Victoria Henneberry’s escorted pass to attend an Indigenous drumming session.

Henneberry is serving a life sentence for the 2014 murder of Loretta Saunders. She and her partner Blake Leggette strangled, beat and suffocated the 26-year-old Saint Mary’s student, who was pregnant, after Saunders came to collect rent. They placed her body in a hockey bag and dumped it on a roadside in New Brunswick. The pair then fled to Ontario, where they were eventually arrested.

Both were convicted and received life sentences, Leggette for a minimum of 25 years and Henneberry for a minimum of 10 years.

Now, just six years later, Henneberry has convinced parole board members that she should get a five-hour pass to attend a drumming session in Waterloo, Ont. She has asked to attend 24 sessions in total over a year.

The board said that since she identifies as American Cherokee on her mother’s side, the session could help in her rehabilitation.

Saunders’ family, some of which is Inuit, is deeply skeptical of Henneberry’s claim to Indigenous heritage.

And the board should have been aware of a report from forensic psychiatrist Grainne Neilson, cited by Court of Appeal Judge Duncan Beveridge in rejecting her bid for an appeal in 2017.

The report said Henneberry “reported a pattern of being able to obtain what she wants by presenting herself as helpless and deserving of sympathy and support, preying on the willingness of others to cater to her needs . . . She described a parasitic existence with frequent conning and manipulation of others.”

Surely parole board members have encountered such inmates before and should be able to discern genuine cases for leniency from blatant attempts to manipulate.

Victoria Henneberry isn’t likely to commit violence on a five-hour escorted pass.

But it’s just as important that the parole board consider public support of its decisions. People already feel that murderers don’t spend enough time in jail. It’s a bit much to ask them to believe Henneberry’s request is anything more than another con.