Don’t give killers a shot at parole
House bill 1797 — “An Act to reduce mass incarceration” — should never be allowed to pass.
If it does, it sends the wrong message to killers — that parole is still on the table no matter how ruthless they were.
The bill would set up a system where murderers could still hope for a parole hearing after 25 years in prison. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, so this means the sanctity of life is basically forgotten.
More than 1,000 inmates in Massachusetts are serving life sentences without parole, said bill co-sponsor state Rep. Liz Miranda. The Roxbury Democrat told fellow lawmakers on Beacon Hill this week she’s aware of the torment associated with every murder as she prepares for the trial of the man accused of shooting her younger brother, Michael, to death in Boston.
But emotion, as any judge is instructed to tell jurors, should not be part of the equation. Only the facts.
If someone kills another with a gun, knife, rock, blunt object or poison, and is found guilty in the first degree, they now must spend the rest of their days behind bars.
When society deviates from that killers win. This is not a debate about capital punishment. It is about the law and order. What happens if there are no consequences for heinous acts? Just think of the chaos such a law could entail.
The bill also calls for the Department of Corrections to establish “a Restorative Justice program within its prisons that is available to anyone sentenced to more than 25 years in prison in order to develop a plan of reconciliation.”
The legislation goes on to say such a program “will allow the interaction between the prisoner and victims, family of the victims, the parties to a crime, and community members within the prison with the goal to identify and address harms and needs and obligations resulting from an offense in order to understand and reconcile the impact of that offense.”
It’s admirable to wish that everyone would just get along. Leave the Glock at home and try to mediate a beef over coffee. But it just doesn’t happen. Murder is most foul.
“This is not a liberal issue or conservative issue — this is an issue that must be focused on justice for victims who are no longer with us,” Peggy Ritzer, whose daughter Colleen Ritzer was murdered in 2013, also told lawmakers this week. “Those who intentionally take an innocent life should not have an opportunity for parole. It is that simple.”
The Joint Committee on the Judiciary hearing Tuesday included several family members of those who had been murdered opposing the bill that would make first-degree murderers eligible for parole after 25 years.
Colleen Ritzer was a 24-yearold math teacher at Danvers High School when she was raped and killed after school by a 14year-old student, who discarded her body in the woods. He then used her stolen credit cards to watch a movie at Hollywood Hits and buy a burger, Peggy Ritzer said through tears.
Ricky Dever, 35, was at Sullivan’s Pub in Charlestown in March of 2005 when he was fatally stabbed protecting patrons at the bar, at the hands of Francis Lang, an armed ex-con. Dever was an off-duty Suffolk deputy sheriff once again protecting others.
Time does not dull the pain for family members. Compassion hardly ever plays part in any sad murder story. Loved ones try to pick up the pieces for years. Just think, how would you feel if someone who murdered your loved one strolled down the street?