TAMPA — One by one, families of Florida prison inmates who have been behind bars for decades came up to plead for mercy. They pointed to clean prison records, changed men, a support system that awaits them on the outside. Then other relatives, related to victims of crimes committed by those men, spoke their mind. They talked about distant but still vivid memories of trauma, in some cases violent death, that happened before their eyes. Please, they begged, don’t release these monsters. For two days last week, the Florida Commission on Offender Review, formerly the parole and probation commission, met in Tampa to hear alternating pleas for leniency and punishment. The...
↧