{"id":11599,"date":"2025-07-21T09:47:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T16:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599"},"modified":"2025-07-21T09:47:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T16:47:37","slug":"parole-for-lwop-sentenced-murderers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599","title":{"rendered":"Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the many, many debates that I have had on capital punishment over the years, almost all of the opponents have promised the audience that we don&#8217;t need the death penalty to prevent release of murderers back in the community because we have this wonderful alternative of life without parole. The badly worded poll questions that opponents love to cite (see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.com\/crimblog\/2010\/10\/quinnipiac-poll-on-death-penal.html\">this post<\/a>) involve offering life without parole as the alternative.<\/p>\n<p>One of the problems with that argument is that there is no such thing as life in prison with\u00a0<em>no<\/em> possibility of parole. Future governors, legislatures, or courts may create a possibility of parole even for the very worst murderers.<\/p>\n<p>Tim Cruz has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/massachusetts-murders-parole-board-commonwealth-v-mattis\">this article<\/a> in the City Journal, titled <em>Why Is Massachusetts Releasing First-Degree Murderers?<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Massachusetts was once a national leader in protecting the rights of victims of crime. Sadly, those days are long gone. A recent ruling by the state\u2019s high court has punched a massive hole in the consequences for first-degree murder. The parole board, which lacks both public accountability and representation for the victims of crime, has taken advantage of this opening to release convicted murderers onto the streets. To get back to putting victims\u2019 rights first, Massachusetts should reform its parole board to ensure transparency and public accountability, including by giving victims and prosecutors a real voice in the process.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in <em>Commonwealth<\/em> v. <em>Mattis<\/em> that sentences of life without parole are unconstitutional when applied to \u201cemerging adults\u201d between the ages of 18 and 20 at the time of their crimes. The decision made Massachusetts the only state with such a lenient standard.<\/p>\n<p>The court claimed to base this new constitutional right on \u201ccontemporary standards of decency\u201d\u2014a phrase that seems to reflect little more than the majority\u2019s personal views. The justices offered no deference to the state legislature, crime victims, or broader considerations of public safety.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the many, many debates that I have had on capital punishment over the years, almost all of the opponents have promised the audience that we don&#8217;t need the death penalty to prevent release of murderers back in the community because we have this wonderful alternative of life without parole. The badly worded poll questions that opponents love to cite (see this post) involve offering life without parole as the alternative. One of the problems with that argument is that there is no such thing as life in prison with\u00a0no possibility of parole. Future governors, legislatures, or courts may create a possibility of parole even for the very worst murderers. Tim Cruz has this article in the City Journal, titled Why Is Massachusetts Releasing First-Degree Murderers?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-probation-and-parole"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers - Crime &amp; Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers - Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the many, many debates that I have had on capital punishment over the years, almost all of the opponents have promised the audience that we don&#8217;t need the death penalty to prevent release of murderers back in the community because we have this wonderful alternative of life without parole. The badly worded poll questions that opponents love to cite (see this post) involve offering life without parole as the alternative. One of the problems with that argument is that there is no such thing as life in prison with\u00a0no possibility of parole. Future governors, legislatures, or courts may create a possibility of parole even for the very worst murderers. Tim Cruz has this article in the City Journal, titled Why Is Massachusetts Releasing First-Degree Murderers?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-21T16:47:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-21T16:47:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kent Scheidegger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kent Scheidegger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599\",\"name\":\"Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers - Crime &amp; Consequences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-21T16:47:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-21T16:47:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ab62da9ed4ddd3a58d70c77eef37356\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Crime &amp; Consequences\",\"description\":\"Crime and criminal law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ab62da9ed4ddd3a58d70c77eef37356\",\"name\":\"Kent Scheidegger\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cjlf.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers - Crime &amp; Consequences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers - Crime &amp; Consequences","og_description":"In the many, many debates that I have had on capital punishment over the years, almost all of the opponents have promised the audience that we don&#8217;t need the death penalty to prevent release of murderers back in the community because we have this wonderful alternative of life without parole. The badly worded poll questions that opponents love to cite (see this post) involve offering life without parole as the alternative. One of the problems with that argument is that there is no such thing as life in prison with\u00a0no possibility of parole. Future governors, legislatures, or courts may create a possibility of parole even for the very worst murderers. Tim Cruz has this article in the City Journal, titled Why Is Massachusetts Releasing First-Degree Murderers?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599","og_site_name":"Crime &amp; Consequences","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/","article_published_time":"2025-07-21T16:47:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-21T16:47:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Kent Scheidegger","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kent Scheidegger","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599","name":"Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers - Crime &amp; Consequences","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-07-21T16:47:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-21T16:47:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ab62da9ed4ddd3a58d70c77eef37356"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11599#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Parole for LWOP-Sentenced Murderers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/","name":"Crime &amp; Consequences","description":"Crime and criminal law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1ab62da9ed4ddd3a58d70c77eef37356","name":"Kent Scheidegger","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cjlf.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11602,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599\/revisions\/11602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}