Hillbilly
03-12-2002, 11:03 PM
Dear Friends,
We desperately need your help. Chris has a parole hearing later this year and we are asking for your support by signing this petition, which humbly request that the state parole board grant him parole.
Let me begin by notifying you that I’m Chris’s wife and we have known one another since 1998. We correspond and speak by telephone regularly, and visit one to two days per week. The man I have come to know is a man completely transformed, and remorseful for the wrong decisions he made as a teenager, and for the irreparable damage his actions had on the victim, the victims family, his family, and society.
I hold a Master of Science degree in nursing and have twelve years of nursing experience. My work has been with a variety of individuals from all social class’s and demeanor. It is from the perspective of one who is personally and professionally concerned about the well being of individuals and the health of our society that I give my unconditional support in favor of granting Chris parole. Given the amount of time we spend together each week, I have formed a responsible view of his personality and his considerable potential.
Chris has been truly rehabilitated during his incarceration. This does not obviate fully the seriousness of his crime, but keeping him incarcerated to protect the public will reap diminishing, if any, returns. Chris could help to repay society in a more meaningful way by being a productive citizen in service to his community. His chances of recidivating are as low as anyone paroled from state corrections. Chris is approaching the age at which the vast majority of offenders desist from crime. It is a truism in criminology that as offenders age, their prospects for recidivism decline commensurately.
When Chris began serving his prison sentence he was an eighteen-year-old alcoholic, drug addict, and high school drop out. Since that time he has obtained his GED, earned 60 credits towards an associate degree and is currently working on a vocational degree in auto body repair.
Chris participates in alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous (AA/NA) on a regular basis. In addition, Chris has completed the violent offenders program and Moral Reconation (MR) program. Experience and research have shown the MR program is successful in reducing failure rates for persons released from incarceration by statistically significant margins. Although he has completed the course, he has chosen to remain in the group as a sustaining participant and has taken on more of a leadership role by assisting new comers to the group, which is an indication of his motivation to continue his progress.
If granted parole, arrangements have been made for us to live outside of the county in which the victim’s family resides. If the parole board feels it would be in the best interest of the victim’s family, we are willing to relocate to another state. In order to assist Chris’s transition to the community, and continue his drug/alcohol prevention, arrangements will be made for him to receive therapy through a mental health and addiction services health center.
We feel that in order for you to make an informed decision to weather you are in favor of Chris making parole, you need to be aware of the crime. We recognize that many citizens will feel safer in our society knowing that a young man capable of such a reckless act received a life sentence, and we accept that opinion. In no way do we mean to minimize the seriousness of this crime, but as quoted by Victor Frankl, “We can’t go back and make a brand new start, but we can start now to make a brand new end.”
The events that resulted in the murder charge occurred after Chris, the deceased, and others had been heavily drinking alcohol and using marijuana over a prolonged period of time. The evidence revealed that the victim died as the result of one of two gunshot wounds to the head.
Despite the fact that there was no direct proof of the events immediately preceding the shooting, no evidence at all of any motive by Chris to harm the victim and uncontraverted evidence of extensive alcohol and substance abuse by both Chris and the deceased, the jury found Chris guilty of murder, and chose the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for that charge. In doing so, the jury rejected the defense of intoxication, which could have lessened the degree of the offense.
We pray that you will support the release of Chris to parole, thereby demonstrating to the parole board that the public still wants the department of corrections to show that prison still has for some the capacity for effecting reform, for stimulating correction and inducing penitence. We thank you for your time. Please view site http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Chris/petition.html
Something to think about:
Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. (Hebrews 13:1-3)
“…where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 38
We desperately need your help. Chris has a parole hearing later this year and we are asking for your support by signing this petition, which humbly request that the state parole board grant him parole.
Let me begin by notifying you that I’m Chris’s wife and we have known one another since 1998. We correspond and speak by telephone regularly, and visit one to two days per week. The man I have come to know is a man completely transformed, and remorseful for the wrong decisions he made as a teenager, and for the irreparable damage his actions had on the victim, the victims family, his family, and society.
I hold a Master of Science degree in nursing and have twelve years of nursing experience. My work has been with a variety of individuals from all social class’s and demeanor. It is from the perspective of one who is personally and professionally concerned about the well being of individuals and the health of our society that I give my unconditional support in favor of granting Chris parole. Given the amount of time we spend together each week, I have formed a responsible view of his personality and his considerable potential.
Chris has been truly rehabilitated during his incarceration. This does not obviate fully the seriousness of his crime, but keeping him incarcerated to protect the public will reap diminishing, if any, returns. Chris could help to repay society in a more meaningful way by being a productive citizen in service to his community. His chances of recidivating are as low as anyone paroled from state corrections. Chris is approaching the age at which the vast majority of offenders desist from crime. It is a truism in criminology that as offenders age, their prospects for recidivism decline commensurately.
When Chris began serving his prison sentence he was an eighteen-year-old alcoholic, drug addict, and high school drop out. Since that time he has obtained his GED, earned 60 credits towards an associate degree and is currently working on a vocational degree in auto body repair.
Chris participates in alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous (AA/NA) on a regular basis. In addition, Chris has completed the violent offenders program and Moral Reconation (MR) program. Experience and research have shown the MR program is successful in reducing failure rates for persons released from incarceration by statistically significant margins. Although he has completed the course, he has chosen to remain in the group as a sustaining participant and has taken on more of a leadership role by assisting new comers to the group, which is an indication of his motivation to continue his progress.
If granted parole, arrangements have been made for us to live outside of the county in which the victim’s family resides. If the parole board feels it would be in the best interest of the victim’s family, we are willing to relocate to another state. In order to assist Chris’s transition to the community, and continue his drug/alcohol prevention, arrangements will be made for him to receive therapy through a mental health and addiction services health center.
We feel that in order for you to make an informed decision to weather you are in favor of Chris making parole, you need to be aware of the crime. We recognize that many citizens will feel safer in our society knowing that a young man capable of such a reckless act received a life sentence, and we accept that opinion. In no way do we mean to minimize the seriousness of this crime, but as quoted by Victor Frankl, “We can’t go back and make a brand new start, but we can start now to make a brand new end.”
The events that resulted in the murder charge occurred after Chris, the deceased, and others had been heavily drinking alcohol and using marijuana over a prolonged period of time. The evidence revealed that the victim died as the result of one of two gunshot wounds to the head.
Despite the fact that there was no direct proof of the events immediately preceding the shooting, no evidence at all of any motive by Chris to harm the victim and uncontraverted evidence of extensive alcohol and substance abuse by both Chris and the deceased, the jury found Chris guilty of murder, and chose the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for that charge. In doing so, the jury rejected the defense of intoxication, which could have lessened the degree of the offense.
We pray that you will support the release of Chris to parole, thereby demonstrating to the parole board that the public still wants the department of corrections to show that prison still has for some the capacity for effecting reform, for stimulating correction and inducing penitence. We thank you for your time. Please view site http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Chris/petition.html
Something to think about:
Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. (Hebrews 13:1-3)
“…where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 38