Legislation granting killer kids parole stalls

A bill that would have given a chance at parole to teenagers convicted of murder — including two of the killers of East Tennessee’s Lillelid family — could be done for the year in the state House.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, wouldn’t have guaranteed parole in such cases. But it would have made parole hearings automatic after 30 years for any juvenile defendant tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison — even in sentences of life without parole.

Akbari said the bill would bring Tennessee into harmony with recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that limit the imposition of life sentences on juveniles. Prosecutors across the state howled in opposition, and legislators took the bill off the calendar this week in the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee, which means it’s most likely done for the session.

“I think it’s extremely tone deaf, especially in light of the recent school shootings,” said Dan Armstrong, Third Judicial District attorney general. “It’s the wrong idea at the wrong time for the wrong reason.”

Armstrong’s district includes Greene County, where teenagers Karen Renee Howell and Jason Blake Bryant pleaded guilty 20 years ago to helping gun down a family of four on the side of a country road and leaving them for dead. Both remain in prison, sentenced to life without parole.

“Under this bill, they could be out in another 10 years,” Armstrong said.