*********** NOTICE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE *********** 
============================================================================
			    GENERAL-RKBA Digest 320
Topics covered in this issue include:
1)CRIMESTRIKE: Parole Officers Under Fire in Parolee Killings by NRA Alerts 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic No. 1
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 21:05:45 -0500 (EST)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: CRIMESTRIKE: Parole Officers Under Fire in Parolee Killings
Message-ID: 
     
                        CrimeWatch Weekly
 
            Breaking news on critical crime-fighting 
                 issues, policies and legislation
 
Vol. 3, No.  49                                  December 9, 1997
                   Parole Officers Under Fire 
                  In Washington Parolee Killings
      As Washington state agreed to pay a $415,000 settlement in
lawsuit faulting the state's juvenile parole system for
negligence in the murder of a 13-year-old, it found itself called
upon to investigate allegations against a veteran adult parole
officer whose actions have triggered a $10 million claim against
the state, Seattle and King County.
     The suit settled last week will pay $415,000 to the family
of Larry E. Rogers III, 13, who was stabbed to death by a trio of
gang members in 1993.  The family accused the state's juvenile
parole agency with negligence for allowing the slain youth's
primary attacker to remain free despite repeated parole
violations.  That killer, on parole for rape, was convicted of
second-degree murder in Rogers' death.
     Authorities say the parole officer in that case remains
employed by the agency.
     But an adult parole officer who figures in the $10 million
claim brought by the family of retired fire captain Stanley
Stevenson, is not so lucky.  State Rep. Ida Ballisiotes has
called for parole officer Barbara Nelson's firing and threatens
an investigation if the state corrections department doesn't
provide her with some answers.  Stevenson was stabbed to death by
a parolee in August. 
     (NRA-ILA Executive Tanya K. Metaksa participated in a
victim's rally for Capt.  Stevenson and other crime victims at
the State Capitol in Olympia on Nov. 2).
     According to press accounts, Nelson, who has been placed on
leave, was the parole officer for killers in two earlier
homicides that prompted lawsuits.  In one, a Pierce County
Superior Court jury just two weeks ago awarded $6.3 million in
the wrongful death 17-year-old Meekha Willingham, a Tacoma
cheerleader.  The state also paid out $120,000 in a suit naming
Nelson as a defendant in a 1993 parolee homicide.
     Press accounts say Nelson had disciplinary actions against
her in the past.  An investigation is underway.
               Majority Of Probationers Are Felons     
     Fifty-eight percent or an estimated 1.5 million of 2.6
million adults sentenced to probation in 1995 had been convicted
of a felony.  Of those, 20% were convicted of a violent crime,
according to a new Bureau of Justice Statistics study,
"Characteristics of Adults on Probation, 1995."  
     The survey found that 1 in 5 probationers had had a formal
disciplinary hearing since entering probation.  Of that one-
fifth, 38% had been arrested or convicted for a new offense, 41%
had failed to report or absconded, and 38% had failed to pay a
fine or restitution.
     Half of all probationers had received a sentence prior to
probation or incarceration, BJS also found.
                   Drafting Flaw May Free 1,300
                   Texas Child Molesters Early
     More than 1,300 child molesters could receive early releases
under a recent Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that
legislators erred in drafting a law intended to exclude  those
offenders for early release programs.
     Attorney General Dan Morales said he will ask the court to
reconsider its decision.
     According to a prison spokesman, 180 child molesters and one
inmate convicted of manslaughter would have to be released by the
end of the year if the ruling stands.
     Texas legislators closed early-release programs for those
convicted of violent crimes in 1987 and for new, non-violent
criminals in 1996.  A law passed this year made child molesters
and manslaughter convicts ineligible if convicted after May 23.
                 FBI Official Defends DNA Testing
     The man hired in October to restore the credibility of the
FBI's laboratories yesterday offered a point-by-point rebuttal to
allegations against FBI facilities and staff competence in DNA
testing made last month by the National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers (NACDL).
     Asst. FBI Director Donald M. Kerr Jr. said the NACDL's
charges against the laboratories (CWW 12/2/97) consisted of "old
and discredited attacks." 
                Court Upholds Pataki On Death Case     
     New York's highest court, in a divided 4-3 decision, has
upheld Gov. George Pataki's authority to remove Bronx District
Attorney Robert Johnson from a case involving the killing of New
York City police officer Kevin Gillespie in March 1996.
     Pataki had successfully pressed the passage of New York's
law reinstituting the death penalty in 1995.  When Johnson said
he would decline to seek that penalty for Officer Gillespie's
alleged killer, Angel Diaz, Pataki transferred prosecution to
Atty. Gen. Dennis Vacco.  Diaz  rendered the issue moot by
committing suicide while awaiting trial. 
     Johnson told reporters that while he has "professional
reservation" about the death penalty, he has no blanket policy
concerning it.
 =+=+=+=+
This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.
This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org
------------------------------
End of GENERAL-RKBA Digest 320
******************************
...          ******** NOTE: THIS IS A FORWARDED MESSAGE ********
--- FMail 1.22
---------------