’09 parole of officer’s killer gets hard look

[newtothegame]

Source: Boston Globe

Dominic Cinelli sat before the Massachusetts Parole Board in November 2008 and insisted that he was no longer the heroin addict who shot a security guard during an armed robbery to feed his drug habit.

“I’m new and different,’’ he said in a soft voice. “But I realize that deep inside me there is still that ugliness, and I know that I have to deal with that and control that, and I’m doing a real good job of it.’’

Four months later, Cinelli was a free man. But the ugliness he described resurfaced Sunday when, according to police, he fatally shot a Woburn police officer during the robbery of a Kohl’s department store. Cinelli, 57, was killed during the shootout with the officer, John Maguire, a 60-year-old father of three who was nearing retirement.

Now the unanimous decision to free Cinelli is under intense scrutiny while police and victim advocates question how the Parole Board released a career criminal serving concurrent life sentences.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/12/29/parole_of_killer_scrutinized_after_he_guns_down_officer/

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Wow.

[Wickerman]

1. Sounds like he looked like a good risk

in a state that has a good record of success with rehabilitation:

"In 2008, about 78 percent of parolees in Massachusetts completed parole supervision without reoffending or violating conditions compared to the 49 percent national rate, according to federal and state statistics.

But yeah, whot a scumbag.

[alp227]

2. Willie Horton, anyone? n/t

[DCKit]

4. Exactly... but which (D) politician are they going to pin this one on? nt

[alp227]

5. Duval Patrick

This was during November 2008, and I don't know how much power the Mass. governor has over the parole board (but I know that as a Californian my governor is allowed to veto parole board decisions). It's a year too late for anyone to pin it on Mitt Romney. And Willie Horton is an appropriate analogy. So Patrick better watch out if he tries to primary Obama in 2012 or run in 2016...oppositional ads will imply "a cop killer was freed thanks to this scary black man!" a la Lee Atwater's Horton ad.

Speaking of cop killers, you may remember the case of Maurice Clemmons, whose 100-year prison sentence for robberies and other crimes was commuted in 2000 by REPUBLICAN Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (also a presidential candidate in 2008 and maybe 2012).

(on edit) Article reports: "Governor Deval Patrick has directed the Parole Board to review the decision, said John Grossman, the state’s undersecretary of public safety and security."

[TheDebbieDee]

3. He was paroled to make room for somebody that got caught with

a nickel bag of chronic!

[Old Troop]

6. How sad.

Once again, DU politics trump the victim.