Keep Violent Geezers Behind Bars

Just what Virginia doesn’t need: Violent predators - murderers and rapists - vomited back into society from prison just because they’re old. 

But that’s what we get in Virginia, thanks to a wrinkle in the law that allows the parole board to spring inmates once they get a few gray hairs.

Let’s back up. 

Many Virginians foolishly believe they live in a no-parole commonwealth. 

After all, in 1994 Gov. George Allen brought us “Truth in Sentencing,” a law that guarantees that every convict would serve almost every single day of his or her prison sentence. That measure was designed to slam shut the revolving doors on Virginia prisons.

The parole board was left to hold hearings for inmates convicted prior to February 1, 1995 - of which there are very few - and those eligible for geriatric parole. That is, an inmate who’s at least 65 years old with 5 years served, or 60 with 10 years served. 

These incarcerated senior citizens can be considered annually by the parole board for release.

Looks like there are lots of wrinkled convicts. According to the Department of Corrections, there are approximately 3,171 inmates aged 65 and older. And that number just keeps on growing.

Lest you think these geezers are in the big house for passing bad checks, selling weed or knocking off liquor stores, they aren’t.

DOC website shows that 90% of those 65 and older are in prison for violent felonies. A full 29 percent of those are in for rape of sexual attacks.

They should never be released. Even when they’re in hospital beds hooked up to tubes and monitors. Let ‘em die where they belong: in prison.

The philosophy behind freeing elderly inmates is that their poor health means they cost more to house than their younger cohort. Thats true. About 17.4% of Department of Corrections expenditures go for geriatric prisoners.

Worth it. 

Take James King, 72, for instance. He was sentenced last February to two life sentences in connection with the brutal murder of Lexie Walters. He spent four years in jail awaiting trial for the 2020 slaying that occurred in the Days Inn off Bonney Road. Those four years count toward his total sentence, hence the recent letter to Walters’ surviving sister alerting her to the parole hearing.

King was 67 when he killed Lexie Walters, proving that some human hairbags don’t mellow with age. In fact, a surprising number of Virginia inmates are serving time for crimes they committed in their 60s.

In an interview with WVEC Commonwealth’s Attorney Colin Stolle characterized King as “extremely dangerous” adding that he has “no business seeing the light of day.”

I’ll say. 

In the 1980s King served 20 years in Ohio for the murder of a woman there. 

Upon his release he came to Virginia Beach. In 2018 he sexually assaulted a woman and served one year in prison.

King got out and murdered Lexie Walters.

Now his lucky number is up - 5 years served - and he’s going before the parole board on Monday September 8th to plead for release.

It’s unlikely that Gov Glenn Youngkin’s parole board, chaired by retired Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Patricia West, will spring him. She isn’t daft like Ralph Northam’s parole board chair who loved waving her “magic wand of freedom” over the heads of criminals during an obscene freeing spree in 2021.

But if - God forbid - Abigail Spanberger is elected governor, there will be another soft-on-crime parole board in place.

Count on it.

You know who else is counting on it? All of the violent geezers who have reached their 60th or 65th birthdays.

Incarcerated felons can’t vote in Virginia. But if they could, they’d eagerly cast their ballots for Spanberger.