AT LEAST WE HAVE A WELL-ARMED CITIZENRY

Oy vey! The bean counters in my home state have found a novel way to reduce prison budgets. Well, at least we have a well-armed citizenry.

DISCRETIONARY MANDATORY RELEASE (HUH?)
By Bob Walsh

PACOVILLA CORRECTIONS blog
April 16, 2010

No, this didn't happen in California. It went down in Texas. We have Revokable-Non-Revokable parole. I'm not sure which concept is more stupid.

Joseph Jean appears to have been a possessive jerk ex-boyfriend. In 2006 he broke into Victoria Wiley's house and assaulted her when she called the cops. Eventually he landed in the slammer for harassment.

He was up for parole in April of 2009. He was denied parole but was released eight weeks later on something called "discretionary mandatory release".

He took a baseball bat and a can of gasoline to his ex-girlfriends house. He was convicted of murdering Chelsy Lang, 17 and Ashley Johnson, 16, who happened to be present at the time and burning the house down around them. He has confessed. The jury sentenced him to death.

A similar case has just run through the courts in Texas with a cop killer, who was also out on "discretionary mandatory release". Mabry Landor was convicted of murdering Houseton P D officer Timothy Abernethy.

About half of those people out on "discretionary mandatory release" are people who were denied parole.