New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez fires executive director and board member who paroled murderer to AA meetings

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At issue is a state law enacted in 1980 that says anyone sentenced to life in prison becomes eligible for parole after 30 years. First-degree murder is the only crime that carries a life sentence. (When the state repealed the death penalty in 2009, it created a new option for sentencing a first-degree murder convict, "life without possibility of parole.")

Only about 10 "lifer" inmates have become eligible for parole hearings since 2010, Dietz says. Of those, only one was granted parole -- and that inmate already is back in prison.

Dietz, who worked more than 20 years with the Victim Impact Division of the Albuquerque District Attorney's Office before she was appointed to the Parole Board by former Gov. Bill Richardson, believes a life sentence should mean life in prison. "We don't do any favors to an inmate by throwing him back into the community after 30 years in prison," she said in an interview last week.

But Thompson, a retired counselor in Santa Fe who has worked in the field of forensic evaluation, believes there are some cases in which parole is justified.

"We have been entrusted with making the best decision we can, considering other factors than just the victims' feelings, such as where the [inmate] is at this time, what they have done in an attempt to rehabilitate themselves, and whether or not they have any support system willing to help them to succeed," she wrote in her letter to Dietz.

Thompson, who had served on the board since 2005, was removed by Martinez the day after Thompson sent the letter. This was only days after the state Senate Rules Committee unanimously voted in favor of the governor's nomination of Thompson for another term on the Parole Board.

On the same day, the governor, a former district attorney in Las Cruces, also fired the Parole Board's executive director, Ella Frank, who had been hired by Richardson in September 2004. Frank's $67,000-a-year job was an "exempt" position, which meant she served at the pleasure of the governor and could be fired at will.

Asked why Frank was fired, Greg Blair, a spokesman for the governor, said, "Gov. Martinez believes that a life sentence should amount to just that -- life in prison. While state law provides for very specific circumstances by which an individual sentenced to life in prison can be paroled after 30 years, the governor has found during her career as a prosecutor that those circumstances are very rarely met. It became apparent that Ella Frank, who was appointed to her position by the Richardson administration, did not share the same philosophy on parole. It was simply time for a change."

In her three-page letter, Thompson said Dietz told her that when legislators enacted the 1980 law, "they never intended for people to get out after 30 years, they intended them to stay in for life."

She also said Dietz made sure to assign herself to hearings in order to "influence the outcome of these 30-to-life hearings, even when it involved driving over 200 miles to a city in which we already have resident Parole Board members."

Parole Board hearings usually consist of two board members, with a third member being called in case of a tie vote.

Dietz denied the accusation about assigning herself to the "30-to-life" hearings. But she said she believes that when a jury delivers a life sentence, they believe the offender will remain incarcerated for the rest of his or her life. "If you ask any jury or ask any victim's family members, they believe life means life," she said. Jurors weren't told that parole would be a possibility in 30 years, she said.

"These are some of the most heinous crimes the state has seen," she said. "It's not easy to get a first-degree murder sentence. I've sat through many murder trials, and most do not result in first-degree convictions."

Thompson, in an interview Monday, said she agrees that most "lifers" shouldn't be paroled. "Most of them don't have support systems," she said, referring to friends and relatives who can help a parolee adjust to life outside prison.

But she said it's important to hear each case individually and judge each parole request on its own merits. "Sandy already has her mind made up," Thompson said. "She doesn't even ask any questions."

The one case in which a "lifer" inmate was paroled in New Mexico after serving 30 years didn't turn out well.

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One who was denied parole in recent months was Robert Wilfred Chavez, a Las Cruces man who had killed his wife and a man she worked with at the old Digital Equipment Corp. electronics plant in Albuquerque in the early 1980s. Chavez thought his wife was having an affair with the man, though Dietz said that affair was never proved.

"He killed them when they were coming back from lunch," Dietz said.

Chavez hasn't had a single discipline report in all his 30 years in prison. Some, including Chavez's case manager in Las Cruces, think he is a good candidate for parole.

And it's one case in which at least one member of the victim's family wasn't fighting parole. Chavez's daughter -- whose mother was one of the victims -- last year was pushing for her father's parole. She had forgiven him and wanted him to live in her house with her, her husband and children in Las Cruces.

But Dietz was unmoved, even after Chavez's daughter begged for his parole.

"It was a very premeditated murder," she said, describing how Chavez bought the gun used in the killing at one store, the bullets at another and went out and practiced with the weapon to make sure it worked.

Is it possible that Robert Chavez, now 62, has changed in 30 years? "He probably has," Dietz said, "but the world has changed, too."

Even if Chavez would have been paroled on his first-degree murder count, he would still have to serve several years for the second killing, for which he received a second-degree murder sentence.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/To-keep--lifers--in-lockup...

I'm glad to hear that the Governor did what she did. That whole deal just smells of corruption and a bribe. I lived in New Mexico for 20 years, and saw that the whole political system there is just unbelievably corrupt. I really would not be surprised to learn that the convict got a cushy parole arrangement in trade for some parole board members getting richer.