La. inmate in landmark Supreme Court case denied parole

26th February 2018   ·   0 Comments

Henry Montgomery, a 71-year-old Louisiana inmate whose case led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on juvenile-offender sentences and Louisiana prison reforms that spurred the release of hundreds of juvenile lifers beginning last fall, was himself denied parole on Monday, Feb. 19, more than five decades after he was convicted in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy at age 17.

The Associated Press reported last week that a three-member panel from the state parole board voted 2 to 1 to keep Henry Montgomery imprisoned. The hearing was his first chance at freedom since his conviction decades ago and a vote to free him would have had to be unanimous. Montgomery now must wait another two years before he can request another parole hearing.

Ironically, the Supreme Court’s January 2016 decision in Montgomery’s case opened the door for roughly 2,000 other juvenile offenders to argue for their release after receiving mandatory life-without-parole sentences.

Montgomery has served 54 years in prison for shooting East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy Charles Hurt in 1963, less than two weeks after Montgomery’s 17th birthday. Last June, a state judge who resentenced Montgomery to life with the possibility of parole called him a “model prisoner” who seemed to be rehabilitated.

Montgomery’s lawyers said he has sought to be a positive role model for other prisoners, serving as a coach and trainer for a boxing team he helped form at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

But the two parole board members who voted against Montgomery questioned why he hadn’t accessed more prison programs and services that could have benefited him. One of the panelists, Kenneth Loftin, also said he was disappointed in some of Montgomery’s statements during the hearing but didn’t elaborate.

James Kuhn, the other board member who voted against Montgomery, told The Associated Press that the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association submitted a statement opposing his release.

“One of the things that society demands, and police officers certainly demand, is that everyone abide by the rule of law. One of the rules of law is you don’t kill somebody, and when you do there’s consequences,” Kuhn said.

Montgomery told the state parole board that he has asked for forgiveness from the deputy’s family and from God.

“I’m sorry for all the pain and misery that I’ve caused,” Montgomery said.

The board also heard from two daughters and a grandson of Hurt, all of whom opposed Montgomery’s release. Hurt was married and had three children.

Linda Woods, his youngest daughter, told The Associated Press she and her sister met with Montgomery in prison last year and forgave him.

“But I do believe that justice has been done and he needs to stay there,” Woods added.

Montgomery faced the board via video conference from prison. His lawyer, Keith Nordyke, said Montgomery was “stoic” but very disappointed with its decision.

Nordyke said Montgomery completed every course required by law to be eligible for parole. However, during his first decades behind bars, prisoners at Angola were prohibited from taking any courses.

“He just did what people on the outside do every day, which is go to work and not get in trouble,” Nordyke said.

Montgomery initially was sentenced to death after a jury conviction. After the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled he didn’t get a fair trial and threw out his murder conviction in 1966, he was retried, found “guilty without capital punishment” and automatically sentenced to life without parole.

In 2012, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juvenile homicide offenders to life without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional “cruel and unusual” punishment. In January 2016, the justices made their decision retroactive, deciding in Montgomery v. Louisiana to extend its ban on such sentences to people already in prison. In the court’s majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said prisoners like Montgomery “must be given the opportunity to show their crime did not reflect irreparable corruption; and, if it did not, their hope for some years of life outside prison walls must be restored.”

The decision ushered in a wave of new sentences and the release of dozens of inmates in states from Michigan to Pennsylvania, Arkansas and beyond.

Other former teen offenders are still awaiting a chance at resentencing in states and counties slow to address the court ruling, an earlier Associated Press investigation found. In Michigan, for example, prosecutors are seeking new no-parole sentences for nearly two-thirds of 363 juvenile lifers. Those cases are on hold until the Michigan Supreme Court determines whether judges or juries should decide the fate of those inmates.

Urged by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, the Louisiana Legislature passed prison reforms last year that would pave the way for the release of some of Louisiana’s prison inmates, address prison overpopulation and end the state’s reputation as “the world’s prison capital.”

A new Louisiana law makes juvenile lifers eligible for release after 25 years in prison — unless a prosecutor intervenes. The state’s district attorneys have asked judges to deny parole eligibility to 84 of the 255 inmates covered by the law, or about one in three cases, according to the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, an advocacy group.

During Monday’s hearing, Loftin asked Montgomery if he remembered the shooting.

“Everything happened so fast, and I wasn’t intending to kill nobody,” Montgomery replied.

According to the Justice Reinvestment, met Task Force, Louisiana has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the U.S., with 816 people in prison for every 100,000 residents.

According to data from the Louisiana Department of Corrections, the state has 3,844 “lifers.” Records show that 2,135 of those Louisiana lifers are first offenders, 40.5 percent have served more than 20 years behind bars, 73.9 percent are African-American and 25..6 percent are white.

WWL News reported recently that 76 of the nearly 1,900 Louisiana inmates who were released early in November have been re-arrested., which critics of the prison reforms have pointed to as a strong case against granting early releases to Louisiana lifers or other inmates.

But the administration of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards put a different spin on the number of early release prisoners who have committed crimes since their release last fall.

“The vast majority of the 1,900 offenders released on Nov. 1 are living up to the terms and conditions of their release,” Tucker Barry, Gov. Edwards; press secretary, told WWL News.

This article originally published in the February 26, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.