GET-OUT-OF-JAIL CARD
Advocate vows to fight ‘mockery’ of legal system
some people don’t need to be there in prison. They’ve recognized they did something terribly wrong, and know they can do good.”
Livingstone filed the bill, “An Act to Reduce Mass Incarceration.” The parole board would only release first-degree murderers they are satisfied are not at risk of reoffending.
“Otherwise, they would continue to serve their sentence and would never be released,” Livingstone said. “This would just allow an opportunity for those people decades later who show they would be a positive in society.”
He also cited the high costs for incarcerating older inmates, which he said is about three times the annual $75,000 price-tag of a younger inmate — or around $225,000 per year.
“When these inmates have shown they’re not a public safety risk, spending tax dollars on them doesn’t make sense,” Livingstone said.
Brownsberger said his bill only applies to future murderers, because with a retroactive bill, “you’d be opening up a lot of things that have been settled.”
But Prisoners’ Legal Services in Boston has endorsed Livingstone’s retroactive legislation.
“We’ve gotten lots of calls from family members who have a little bit of hope,” executive director Elizabeth Matos said, “that their loved one might have a chance.”
But the Titcomb family and others who lost relatives to murderers say they’ll fight it on Beacon Hill. They’ve been collecting signatures for petitions against the bills.
“They want us as victims to swallow these bills,” Terry Titcomb said. “It ain’t ever gonna happen. No way.”
Aaron Titcomb said the lifers don’t deserve hope.
“We all know what hope can do for a person,” he said. “A little piece of hope can build, and that makes them happy. They’re smiling. When are we allowed to smile? We have no hope my father is going to walk through that door and give me a hug.”
Anne Murphy was at work when she heard her son Devyn’s voice for the last time 17 years ago.
The mother and her 16-year-old son exchanged “I love you’s” before hanging up.
Devyn was the youngest of her three children, her “baby.”
That night, Devyn was stabbed to death during a fight at a party in Wareham.
“It’s like being in hell,” Murphy told me Monday, “and you have to climb out of it.”
Devyn was murdered in 2002. Five years later, Murphy helped launch the Southeastern Massachusetts chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, a national nonprofit that supports families grieving the loss of a murdered loved one.
Now, the group is pushing to stop a proposed Massachusetts law that would give first-degree murderers a chance to get out of prison, even though they’ve been sentenced to life behind bars without parole.
Lifers’ Group Inc. — a nonprofit group run by lifers serving time at MCI-Norfolk led by convicted wife-killer Dirk Greineder — is behind the bill.
“A jury has come to a verdict — life with no parole — because our loved ones went out in a body bag — and they can go out in a body bag as well,” Murphy said of convicted murderers. “It’s a public safety issue and puts people in danger. I hope this bill never comes to fruition.”
Murphy cited the case of Albert Flick, a 77-year-old Maine man with a history of violence against women. Flick murdered his wife, Sandra Flick, in 1979, stabbing her more than a dozen times in front of her daughter. Flick was sentenced to 30 years in prison but was sprung free after 21 years for good behavior.
Flick was sentenced again in 2010 for assaulting another woman but the judge ignored a prosecutor’s recommendation for a longer sentence, saying Flick was too old to be a threat. Last week, Flick was sentenced to life in prison for the 2018 murder of Kimberly Dobbie, whom he stabbed nearly a dozen times in front of her twin boys outside a laundromat.
Murphy said members of her organization are voicing their opposition to the proposed bill and organizing petitions to block it. She had a message for the convicted murderers behind the proposal.
“We’re going to fight this,” Murphy said. “It’s wrong. It takes the justice system and makes a mockery of it.”
Locally, Parents of Murdered Children has about 50 members — mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends grappling with murder. The organization helps families through the court process and holds monthly support group meetings. Every December, they hold a vigil for the victims.
“We try to help them get through the worst thing that could possibly happen to any human being,” Murphy said.
One murder that hit Murphy hard was the brutal murder of a 3-year-old, whose grandfather told his tragic story at a meeting.
Sharing, Murphy said, can be healing.
“We just listened,” Murphy said. “There really isn’t a lot you can say. Not at that moment.”