Panel approves parole for woman serving life for death of husband

LITTLE ROCK — Willie Mae Harris, a 72-year-old woman whose life sentence for killing her abusive husband has become the subject of public calls for mercy, had her parole application approved by the Arkansas Parole Board last week.

The decision by the Parole Board followed the required waiting period since Gov. Asa Hutchinson commuted Harris’ life sentence in early March.

Still Harris, who is blind, must wait for officials in Texas and Arkansas to approve of her plan to move to Dallas to live with her daughter before Harris can be released, according to her attorney.

The Parole Board’s decision was first reported by The Appeal, an online publication that has written extensively on Harris’ case and her bids for clemency.

“She has been very excited since March,” said Harris’ New Orleans-based attorney, Lee Eaton. “Ecstatically excited.”

Harris’ case has also been taken up by Arkansas

Democrat-Gazette columnist Mike Masterson, who has recounted Harris’ claim that she shot her husband, Clyde, by accident while trying to fight him off with a pistol that she used for protection. Harris and her daughter, Silvia Harris, have said Clyde Harris was abusive and had grown more violent in the weeks leading up to his death in 1985.

Brooke Cummings, the executive administrator for the Parole Board, said the vote was 5-0 in favor of Harris’ release. The board released 50 letters that it received supporting Harris’ application, four of which were handwritten.

In her letter to the Parole Board, Silvia Harris wrote that her mother has two children, nine grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren to be with when she is released.

“My home is safe and ready for her arrival,” Silvia Harris wrote. “We have made proper adjustments for her comfort. I’m asking you all to not only grant her parole but if there’s any way possible to release her in a timely manner, please do so.”