Frederick Christian laughs during a light moment at a hearing before the state’s parole board in Natick last month. At left is his attorney Joe Mulhern. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
BOSTON — A bill that would allow parole for juveniles convicted of first-degree murder was approved by the Massachusetts House on Wednesday.
Under the measure, which passed on a 127-16 vote, people convicted of first-degree murder for crimes that occurred while they were between the ages of 14 and 18 could be eligible for parole after serving 20 to 25 years in prison.
For crimes that were deemed to involve deliberate premeditated malice or extreme atrocity or cruelty, the wait would be 25-30 years.
JOHN VELIS
First-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole in Massachusetts, but the state’s highest court ruled last year that it was unconstitutional to deny the possibility of parole to juveniles who were convicted of murder.
During Wednesday’s vote, the House rejected Republican-sponsored amendments that would have required somewhat longer stays in prison before people would become eligible for parole.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo said the bill will help ensure public safety.
“The House felt it was necessary to create a strong framework for protecting our residents while accounting for the special circumstances associated with juvenile offenders,” the Winthrop Democrat said. I am grateful for the input from the many committed organizations, families and legislators who helped craft this fair and balanced bill.”
“These are some of the most heinous, egregious and brutal crimes there are out there, so we needed to act and act fast. We passed a very strong bill yesterday,” said Rep. John Velis (D-Westfield) this morning. “I think (these new sentences) fit much more in line with what society feels is more just as opposed to the 15 years eligibility before parole.”
Velis cited the efforts of the Joint Judiciary Committee’s Vice Chairman Christopher Markey (D-Dartmouth) as “absolutely huge.”
The committee is currently without a chairman, as former chair Eugene O’Flaherty, a Chelsea Democrat, resigned from the House of Representatives earlier this year to become the corporation counsel for the city of Boston.
Even without a chairman, Velis said that the committee understood the importance of this bill and acted swiftly.
“We had the hearings for this bill last month. The district attorneys, police chiefs, and victims rights groups came to us. There has been a lot of back and forth, but we acted pretty quickly,” he said. “Ultimately those of us who were pushing for a more hardline stance, we prevailed for the better. These are the most heinous, vicious, and brutal crimes there are.”
Some activists are not as enthused with the bill, which will now move to the State Senate.
Nancy Scannell of the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children said the bill undermines the court by “creating de facto life sentences” in part by “increasing the wait for a second hearing to 10 years.”
“The (court) struck down juvenile life without parole based in large part on internationally accepted science which has proven that a child’s brain is different from an adult’s and is not fully developed until his mid-twenties,” Scannell said. “The court called for juveniles to have a meaningful chance at earning parole as a result. This legislation is not in keeping with that intent.”
Relatives of several murder victims attended the Statehouse hearing last month in support of a bill that would have required a significantly longer period, 35 years, before parole could be granted.
The state’s parole board has already begun hearings for some of the 63 prisoners serving life without parole in Massachusetts under a juvenile sentencing law that carried a mandatory life sentence for first-degree murder.
This month, the board approved parole for Frederick Christian, who has been imprisoned since age 17 for his role in a deadly robbery in 1994.
In its ruling, the Parole Board cited Christian’s age at the time of the crime, his clean prison record and his testimony at a hearing last week. Christian, now 37, told the board he had completed rehabilitation programs in prison, had earned his high school equivalency degree and become a devoted Muslim.
Christian was convicted in a robbery in which two people were killed and a third was wounded. Another man fired the gun. The surviving robbery victim called Christian “a stone-cold killer” and testified he feared for his safety if Christian were released.
