After 25 years, convicted killer’s parole hangs on transcript
Convicted of manslaughter 25 years ago, Andre Pierce is now up for parole. But that parole hearing has been delayed, his attorney said, because of a Connecticut law requiring a full trial transcript.
State statute stipulates that no parole hearing can proceed until “the parole release panel is in possession of the complete file for such applicant, including any documentation from the Department of Correction, the trial transcript, the sentencing record and any file of any previous parole hearing.”
In response to a request for comment, the parole board said by email that “per the parole officer, both the officer and the executive director have advised Mr. Pierce and his attorney we are still awaiting required documents.”
Pierce’s attorney, Alex Taubes, said usually parole hearings are scheduled years in advance, allowing time for required documentation to be unearthed and shared.
But Pierce’s sentence was reduced in October, making him eligible for parole faster than the system could accommodate, Taubes said.
“At first I thought it was the parole board being dastardly,” he said. “They are, for what it’s worth, following the law as it’s written.”
Pierce “became eligible for parole all of a sudden because a judge in Bridgeport said he should be eligible for parole,” Taubes said.
On Nov 27, 1996, Bridgeport police responded to a report of gunshots and approached what they said was a suspicious vehicle where they found a 38year-old male victim, dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
An investigation led to the arrest of then 18-yearold Pierce. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
After more than 25 years, Pierce requested a sentence modification. According to an Oct. 4 ruling by Superior Court Judge Earl Richards, 11 people came forward to testify on Pierce’s behalf.
Among them were Wesleyan professor Laurie Gruen, who helped Pierce attain a bachelor’s degree in philosophy while in prison. Richards wrote that Gruen “indicated that in her opinion, the petitioner was one of the most intellectually gifted students that she has ever taught.”
But Richards also noted that Pierce was convicted of manslaughter and, “in this act not only took the life of the victim, but also deprived the victim's wife and daughters of a husband and father.”
Richards ruled in favor of a sentence modification, reducing Pierce’s time behind bars by 18 months, making him eligible for parole.
A month later, on Nov. 17, Pierce’s parole officer said the hearing was delayed due to the lack of a “complete” trial transcript. On Nov. 23, the officer told Pierce, “we are still waiting for the trial transcript.”
Taubes asked the parole board to make an exception, but a letter from Richard Sparaco, executive director of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, informed the defense attorney that no parole hearing could proceed.
“There is no ambiguity in the text with regard to trial transcripts and there is no evidence that the legislature intended trial transcript to mean anything other than a complete trial transcript,” Sparaco wrote. “Therefore, a hearing for Mr. Pierce cannot be scheduled until the board is in receipt of the complete trial transcript.”
When asked how long such requests usually take, the parole board said by email, “I cannot give you an exact time frame. The documents have been requested.”
Taubes said it’s the parole board’s responsibility to provide that transcript, though they are under no obligation to do so quickly.
“You don’t have a right to parole in the first place,” Taubes said. “Parole is a matter of grace that the system bestows upon you.”
Taubes and Pierce could request the documentation themselves, after which the state would have 30 days to produce the transcript.
But Taubes said he expects that transcript to be close to 2,000 pages in length, and to cost at least $3 per page.
“We could order it from the court system ourselves,” Taubes said. “They would have to produce it in 30 days if we paid, how much?”
As for where the transcript is, Taubes said he would “love to have an answer to that question.”
“Maybe they’re in a storage facility somewhere,” he said.