Cuomo clemency decision revives rehabilitation debate

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to grant clemency to a former Weather Underground activist convicted of felony murder in the killings of two police officers and an armored car guard is invigorating debate over whether criminals who’ve transformed their lives should be allowed to return to society.

Sent to prison in Bedford Hills for 75 years to life, Judith Clark, 67, is expected to face a parole board in early March. The stage was set for the hearing by Cuomo’s holiday season decision to give her clemency.

Those clamoring for her release after 35 years of incarceration include such Hollywood celebrities as Glenn Close, Kevin Kline and Steve Buscemi.

But critics of Cuomo’s decision, led by Rockland County Executive Ed Day and several lawmakers, argue that he should not have substituted his judgment for that of the judge who meted out a sentence that likely would have ended with Clark’s death behind bars.

Under terms of her sentence, Clark had been ineligible for parole until after she turned 106 years old.

Defending his decision, Cuomo told reporters that Clark was merely the getaway driver for the Brink’s robbery that preceded the killings in Nyack on Oct. 20, 1981.

Killed in a hail of bullets were Nyack Police Sgt. Edward O’Grady, Officer Waverly Brown, the first African-American cop on the Nyack force, and Peter Paige, a Brink’s guard.

O’Grady and Paige were both married fathers of three children, and Brown was recently engaged.

Cuomo said he’d met Clark in prison and described her as “impressive” and “a very sober-minded, community oriented person, very concerned about not being able to spend time with her child.”

“At one point you have to say to yourself, ‘What are you accomplishing? And was there actual fairness here?'” he explained to reporters. “Ms. Clark did not pull a trigger.”

But Day, a retired New York City police commander, said in an interview Friday that her role in the crimes was far deeper than described by Cuomo. He noted that she was found guilty by a jury of three counts of felony murder for having participated in crimes that resulted in the killings.

“She was involved in the planning, she was at the scene of the shooting, and she was reaching for a gun when she was captured,” he said.

Cuomo’s decision stops short of a pardon but allows Clark’s parole application to be taken up 39 years before she otherwise would have been given a shot at release.

Joanne Page, director of the Fortune Society, a nonprofit that assists ex-offenders and advocates for prisoners’ rights, contended that Cuomo’s call was appropriate in light of Clark’s good behavior in prison and the fact that co-defendants in the case got more lenient sentences.

Page said Cuomo has shown signs of being receptive to clemency requests after granting only a handful in his first several years of governor. He’s also pushed to have the age of young defendants taken into consideration when punishment is meted out, she added.

Page said he is more open to giving weight to an inmate’s success in rehabilitation programs than to the gravity of the crime committed years earlier.

Cuomo appoints parole board commissioners, and his appointees also oversee the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Clarkstown Police Detective Christopher Kiernan, who is president of the Rockland County Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said he and others fighting Clark’s release expect she will be paroled given the governor’s influence.

Kiernan said Cuomo opted to grant clemency now, having steered clear of the matter earlier, because he now wants to broaden his appeal to liberals.

The state Sheriff’s Association, the state Association of Chiefs of Police and the union representing New York City police officers are among groups that have joined that call.

Meanwhile, Clark’s backers are touting the fact her request for parole is being supported by Elaine Lord, the former prison superintendent at Bedford Hills, and Robert Dennison, who oversaw the parole board in former Gov. George Pataki’s administration.

She’s also getting a boost from Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, who said he met Clark as a law student working on clemency applications. “Judith has proven that rehabilitation is indeed possible,” he said in a statement.

But the president of the State Troopers Police Benevolent Association, Thomas Mungeer, said in an interview Friday that Cuomo is “sending the wrong signal” by going to bat for an inmate who participated in domestic terrorism and has been convicted in connection with cop killings.

“I do believe people can change,” he said, “and I hope Judith Clark continues her good deeds behind bars.”

Patrick Bailey, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said an exact date for the parole hearing has not been set.

Source: The Daily Star