'All things' weren't considered

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March 21, 2009

Anonymous The Meridian Star Sat Mar 21, 2009, 11:16 PM CDT

I am writing in response to your March 13 article on Mississippi Parole Board member Betty Lou Jones' comments on the Hodgkin parole. Hodgkin beat, raped, sodomized, bound, tortured and strangled my sister in 1986 and was sentenced to life in prison. Our family has appeared before the parole board 8 times since 1997 to oppose Hodgkin's parole, including in January of this year.

ones said the Hodgkin case was no different than any other case the board has considered, except for the amount of media attention.  I doubt that is true. The Oxford police officers who have appeared with our family have repeatedly stated that Jeannie's murder and rape was one of the most violent crimes they have experienced in their law enforcement careers to this day. I don't think a murder/sexual assault that violent routinely comes before Jones and the Parole Board.

Jones was quoted in the story as saying "All things were considered that needed to be considered..." The board did not consider all that they are required to consider. They are required by Mississippi law to consider the serious nature of the crime and whether multiple crimes were committed. In January, they refused to review the crime scene photos, which were available, because, as one of them said, the photos made them sick and unable to sleep. Not all board members have seen the photos at earlier hearings. I reminded Jones and the others that they had a duty to review the crime scene photos in order to judge the severity of the crime and understand the multiple crimes committed against Jeannie.

They did not review them. They are further required to judge community opposition. I asked them at the hearing how they intended to do that and they could not answer. My family provided them copies of letters to editors, editorials, and printouts of news media blog commentary in order to show that public opinion in Mississippi is overwhelmingly against this parole. I know of no other way to judge community opposition.  Because they must know that Hodgkin, if paroled, would go to Kentucky, they also have a duty to consider community opposition there. The only Kentuckians they have consulted are Hodgkin's family. The people of Winchester, Ky., knew nothing of their decision until after it was made, when my family alerted media in Kentucky.

"Anytime someone like this comes up for parole consideration, emotions on the part of the victim's family begin to run high," Jones is quoted as saying. Indeed. Our emotions run high every time we think of Jeannie's horrible death. We have a sister who has never appeared at a parole hearing because she can barely speak Jeannie's name, so great is her grief still. But for us, this is about justice, and not the venting of our emotions. If Hodgkin is paroled and lives to life expectancy, he'll have more years in freedom than Jeannie's short life when he killed her, and more then he served in prison during his so-called "life" sentence. This is also about public safety — if the Parole Board can rationalize this parole, they can rationalize absolutely any parole. Life sentences and prison terms thereby lose all credibility. I suppose Mrs. Jones would have us believe all this was considered.

Finally Jones dismisses our efforts to focus public attention on this case.  "The family has contacted a lot of media outlets and other people...[so]...The difference is that a lot of media are involved."  Indeed they are. Having failed by rational argument to get Jones and some of her colleagues to keep this dangerous man in jail, we have taken that argument to the press in the hopes that the people of Mississippi will demand an accounting. Apparently they are and Mrs. Jones seems troubled by it. Perhaps she is no longer best suited for a position of public trust.

Paul H. Herbert

Wheaton, Ill.

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