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| Dale and Dori Robie (holding a photo of her son Derrick) at today's news conference in Albany |
Albany, N.Y., May 9—Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C,I-Big Flats) and
Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C,I-Corning) today joined legislative colleagues
and family members of murder victims, including the parents of Derrick Robie of
Savona (Steuben County), to call for the approval of “Lorraine’s Law” to extend
the time period that certain convicted murderers have to wait to apply for a
parole hearing.
(For video comments from the Robie family, click HERE).
The lawmakers and families held a news conference at the
Capitol today in an annual advocacy effort to fight for the enactment of what’s
now known as “Lorraine’s Law” in memory of Lorraine Miranda, who was 24 years
old when she was murdered by her fiancée in their State Island apartment in
December 1988. Her killer, Chris
Patterson, has been denied parole every other year since 2003. Members of Miranda’s family were also in
Albany today.
O’Mara and Palmesano co-sponsor the measure (S.2997/A.2350),
which has received Senate approval but not from the Assembly leadership.
In a joint statement, O’Mara and Palmesano said, ““We’re not
going to go away and we’re going to keep standing with Dale and Dori Robie and
other families until ‘Lorraine’s Law’ becomes law. We’re continuing to call on the Assembly
leadership to recognize the decency and fairness behind this action for the
sake of the families of murder victims.
Dale and Dori Robie and so many other families have to go on, every
other year, reliving the pain and the horror of the crimes that took the lives
they cherished. We need to finally show
some compassion for these families.”
Derrick Robie’s parents, Dale and Dori, said, "We are
in total support of ‘Lorraine’s Law’ and appreciate the efforts being made by
state legislators to have it become law.
We are committed to working with them to secure its enactment in
Derrick's memory and so that other families like ours, whose lives have been
forever changed by a violent criminal, do not have to relive their ordeal every
two years."
Under existing law, the state Parole Board is required to
allow inmates to request a parole hearing every two years. The legislation O’Mara and Palmesano
co-sponsor would allow the Parole Board to extend the time period between
parole hearings from two to five years for offenders convicted of the Class A-1
felonies of murder in the first or second degrees, or aggravated murder, where
a sentence other than life imprisonment without parole is imposed. The board would still have the option to
permit an earlier hearing.
“Lorraine’s Law” is
sponsored by Senator Kenneth P. LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) and Assemblyman Fred
W. Thiele, Jr. (I,D,WF-Sag Harbor). It
has strong bipartisan support in the Assembly with a total of 51 sponsors,
including the entire Assembly Republican conference.
Sponsors and supporters of the measure, including the
Robies, argue that the longer time frame would help spare the families of
victims from having to repeatedly, every two years, relive the events that took
the lives of their loved ones -- as well as to further help prevent any chance
that a heinous criminal will be granted an unwarranted, early release from
prison. They’ve been critical of the
leadership of the Democrat-controlled Assembly for not allowing the legislation
to be voted on by the full Assembly.
Derrick Robie was four years old in August 1993 when he was
killed by Eric Smith, then 13, in a wooded area near Robie’s home in
Savona. Smith was convicted of second-degree
murder in 1994 and sentenced to nine years to life in prison. He’s currently incarcerated at the
maximum-security Collins Correctional Facility outside Buffalo.
Smith first became eligible for parole in 2002 and has been
denied parole eight times, including last April. Under current law, he’s eligible for another
parole hearing in April 2018.
In addition to the Robies and Mirandas, today’s news
conference was also attended by the family members of Jenna Grieshaber of
Camillus, who was a 22-year-old nursing student on the eve of graduation from
Russell Sage College in Albany when she was murdered in her apartment by a
paroled violent felon, who was a neighbor, on November 6, 1997. Grieshaber’s killer, Nicholas Pryor, had
served just two-thirds of his sentence.
Jenna’s death led the state Legislature and then-Governor George Pataki
to enact “The Sentencing Reform Act of 1998,” commonly known as “Jenna’s Law,”
to establish determinate sentences for first-time violent felony offenders and
require their incarceration for longer periods of time.
