Why I Should Be Paroled Now

By

Bill Cottringer

     This was Sam Carver’s 5^th parole hearing since he became eligible for the minimum release date on his 50-year sentence for two attempted murders and robbery. This was his most important hearing because of the timing, following a clemency hearing. He resolved to remain positive and hopeful, despite another inmate just having taken his own life after his 10^th denial after becoming eligible, having served 30 years of a life sentence for the murder of a police officer at age 17. The State was considering early release to ease prison overpopulation, especially for youth committing crimes, except this didn’t apply to violent offenders.

     After four previous failures to convince the parole board he had served enough time and was ready to be set free, Sam finally found out why he wasn’t receiving favorable consideration. Two close friends of Sam’s—Cameron Carter and Nick Stanton—had collaborated behind the scenes to help him understand why he did what he did on that night in March of 1988 and how to explain that to the parole board from somewhere between his head and heart, to finally be successful in his quest for freedom. He had sensed these things about what most likely happened, from all the lonely nights her had to think about this, but somehow he couldn’t put them into the words that were needed for his statement.

     The two friends—Cameron, a security executive and college professor, and Nick a retired teacher and successful business person—corresponded with each other and Sam in brainstorming possible scenarios of conflicts that likely resulted in enough stress to disrupt normal thinking and behavior, especially making the right choices to solve problems at hand. This was intended as an explanation of what happened in relation to predicting Sam’s readiness for release, and in no way meant to legitimize or excuse his horrific crimes. They all knew these crimes were a complete aberration from Sam’s true character more than 40 years before and now 30 years afterwards.

     As we have already seen in the earlier part of this story, Cameron Carter had known Sam Carver in the military during the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1965. They served together as policeman in the US Air Force after basic and tech school training at Lackland Air Force base in Texas.  After being honorably discharged from their war service, they went their own separate ways, both unknowingly pursuing further education, training and careers in criminal justice.

    Cameron and Sam only reconnected 2 years ago, by a chance finding of an internet story that lead to other information links about Sam being in prison. They corresponded almost daily and Cameron felt confident that his former military friend was the same good person he was at age 18. The other friend, Nick, had helped Sam with his defense at the trial and had been visiting him regularly for over 25 years now. Their visits took advantage of the full 4-hours allowed at the prison, but only on weekends.  Those two solved all the problems we have in the world today and could probably tell our current, politically inexperienced President a thing or two. But, Sam, Nick and Cameron had a much different priority. Besides the unexpected election results had already taken away the legitimate shot at clemency Sam had from the governor. The prison warden even recommended him.

     The three conversed rigorously and finally managed to agree on the likely things that went on before and during the crimes. For one thing Sam was struggling financially with his private security business and even his part-time job as a police officer, couldn’t bail him out of where the business was headed. He most likely saw himself boxed into a corner with no way out, which he later confirmed as being the way it was. Then one March afternoon in 1988, Sam got hired by a client who agreed to give him a significant cut in some ready cash—a huge stash of half a million from a notorious drug dealer cashing in from his recent drug deals and wanting getting away from the escalating violence—at his large estate that was up for sale.

     The sleazy new client, who had just been busted for a felony unknown to Sam, somehow convinced him that the money was really his because the drug dealer owned it to him, all $500K.  Sam was chosen for this shady service mainly because of his security and law enforcement skills, especially to gain access to the electronic fortress of the drug dealer, which was no easy matter. He was to pose as a prospective buyer with $150K in cash, which he drew out of his savings, to be more credible.

     At this time, Sam was also struggling with his moral conscience about this proposed crime, even if the drug dealer was a criminal in himself, and stealing money from another criminal wasn’t such a bad thing to do. Besides, he wouldn’t get caught because it couldn’t get reported and if it was, all the money would be confiscated by the State. Here we have a professional black businessman who had been highly successful in his law enforcement and security careers defending the law, but now facing the personal humiliation of losing his business and being in financial ruin. Life was setting up the ultimate us vs, them conflict in Sam’s mind in pitting him against a younger sociopathic white drug dealer who had been highly successful violating the law, rich in other’s ruins. “Where is the justice in this?” thought Sam to himself, on many occasions in planning this easy robbery with no expected bad consequences.  

    These were just the conflicts Sam was struggling with before the crimes, which he had anticipated being easy and without any consequences. This was like picking low hanging fruit with easy clients to land in business, just to get things going as a needed jump start. Gain without any pain. But Lord almighty he was wrong. What he didn’t anticipate was other people being present at the scene and the money not being anywhere, except a measly $3K hit away in the oven in the kitchen. Before Sam knew it, the easy robbery whet to hell in a handbasket and the whole scene suddenly spired out of control, nearly being fatal for four people, including Sam. There was utter chaos which Sam’s earlier military and law enforcement training couldn’t even manage to control.

     Not being able to get out of a situation he put himself into, the way he wanted to, was the tipping point that left two people for dead, and later when he was finally caught, resulted in his 50-year sentence. All these details were already portrayed vividly in an earlier movie, so this is the rest of the story. The challenge for the three friends was how to be successful in getting Sam released by the parole board this time. All the objective things in the record—the amount of time served, his age, the model prisoner he had been, all the treatment programs he completed and his extremely low risk assessment—proved he had earned and deserved his freedom.

      But what nobody seemed to be aware of, at least consciously, was what was in the black box—the unknown subjective information that was somehow working against Sam. This brings us to the crucial part of the three friend’s plan to learn all they needed to know to be successful. They had to agree on what was holding Sam back in not getting a favorable decision from the parole board. To be successful, they had to look and think much harder and deeper until they were sure.

     After several months of exchanging relevant information—from what Sam knew from his firsthand experiences, what Cameron remembered from his earlier days as a prison warden and criminal psychologist, and what Nick learned from his many ears of visiting with Sam in prison and exhaustive Internet searches of the record—they identified several problems they needed to address in their letters and Sam’s statement at the hearing. First, the parole board was in effect resentencing Sam for the maximum time, from their own interpretation of violent crimes under the Truth in Sentencing Law passed down by the Feds in making it mandatory for inmates convicted of violent crimes to serve two-thirds of their sentences. Unfortunately, his consecutive, indeterminate sentencing structure made this more arbitrary than set. And at the same time, the parole board was also applying all the harsh things the trial judge said about Sam and his crimes deserving everything the law could throw at him, to justify their denials of Sam’s parole.

     Yet another problem uncovered by Nick’s Internet research was that the parole board was relying on the victim impact statements, characterizing Sam as a cold, calculating and callous killer without a conscience, or in other words pure evil and still dangerous. But this was their biased subjective perception and they hadn’t interacted with Sam in three long decades or know him in his 44 prior years. And as the parole board had already said to Sam in previous hearings, being a police officer sworn to protect people, not harm them, this was much worse. Of course, the three knew that this was really a two-edged sword. After all, his good military and law enforcement service should count for something in balancing things out.

     Cameron was impacted greatly by this revelation, because in his 50 years in the criminal justice system, he had only come upon one person he knew to be evil without a conscience. This was a 19-year old kid who had sodomized and mutilated over 21 young boys serving several consecutive life sentences on death row at a maximum-security prison in the Midwest. One time, while then a prison warden, Cameron was talking to this inmate, reviewing his release from solitary confinement, the hair on the back of his neck stood up from the deep voice talking to him with a blank stare and the cold, damp air heavy between the bars. That was an unforgettable feeling that 30 years away from prison work couldn’t erase in Cameron’s mind. This was definitely not the Sam he matured with in the military and later came to know again. Nor was this nick’s impression by far.

    The parole board was using all these factors, which they automatically believed as being true, to predict Sam’s high potential for reoffending if they released him. And all this ran counter to the many objective factors in his favor, especially his age, solid parole plan, institutional record, treatment program completion, and extremely low release risk assessment score. So, how to change this perception was a formidable challenge, knowing it was virtually impervious to modifying in Sam’s favor. During Cameron’s earlier counseling days he had learned the importance of counselors and therapists and anyone in the people-helping business to develop emotional intelligence to complement their thoughtfulness in what they were trying to do. This especially involved growing one’s ability to demonstrate empathy for others.

   In later years, Cameron published several professional articles and books on this critical topic of empathy and even wrote a short story about empathy libraries being built for people to be able to access virtual empathy experiences electronically, like shooting someone or being shot, roaring like a lion in the jungle, swimming in the sea as a whale or dying and being in the afterlife. For some time now, Cameron had been convinced that the lack of empathy was the main cause of all wrong-doing in the world from criminal behavior to a failed marriage to wars. He further collaborated his theory of the importance of empathy with his daughter who had just started a Ph.D. program dealing with disabled kids. Empathy was the focus in her most effective drama therapy interventions, which she was now going to prove scientifically.

    So now, the three finally converged on what Cameron and Nick could say in their letters and what Sam could say at his next hearing, to the central question, “Mr. Carver, please tell us why we should release you from prison this time?”  When the time came, Sam was more than ready. His answer was one word, “empathy.”   “What do you mean?” was the quick follow-up question by the parole board chairperson.  “Well,” continued Sam, “during these last 30-years I have had a lot of time and help from the prison staff and friends to help me understand why I did what I did.”

    Without trying to be too intellectual and talk as he normally would, Sam made it easier on them to understand and believe him, in sharing who he was before his incarceration and who he was today. He simply said, “Back before I came to prison I wasn’t even thinking of how the lack of empathy was causing all my failures. I thought it was just bad luck or not trying hard enough or not using the right approach. But, the kind of empathy I am talking about is being more sensitive to others, especially how what you say or do can hurt them. And when others do this to you, and you feel terrible with pain, it finally registers.”

     “That is what stops all wrong-doing because you have finally learned why you should always choose to do right—to avoid having to feel terrible when you do wrong. Before, I used to let my psychological conscience excuse all that my moral conscience wouldn’t approve of. Now, after all these years here, I truly understand why you should listen to your God-given moral compass—because it is the only real source of truth that you can really trust.”

     “The way I have gotten to this point, is through the hard lesson of knowing the importance of showing empathy because it is the only thing we need to do to appreciate our life and my eventual freedom. Nothing else matters. Simply put, I lacked empathy before and now I have it and not being something you can lose, this is what guarantees my success on parole. Of course, my solid parole plan and continued support from family and friends, are just icing on the cake. So, there you have it in one work—empathy.”

     “Is there anything else you wish to add—anything more you want to say—Mr. Carver?” asked the chairperson. Same ended by saying, “only that this is the one thing I figured out you wanted me to discover on my own, when I asked before what I could do to improve my chances and you wouldn’t answer. I am sure I am right about this.”

     Now Sam had to return to his cell and wait another two weeks for the parole board decision. Something his friend Cameron had told him earlier stuck in that place somewhere between his head and heart. What Cameron has said was, “There are really only two kinds of emotions—the positive ones that feel good and the negative ones that feel everything else. And the purpose of these emotions is easy to see. The positive ones happen to let you know you are on the right path while the negative ones occur to get you to stop and try a different approach because the present path you are walking on may not be the right one.”

    Sam finally realized why he failed before. He didn’t hear what his negative feelings were trying to tell him. And now he also understands why. The words ego and empathy can’t be used in the same sentence. To be continued…