PBA calls for end of "parole commissioner shopping" by cop killers

PBA president, Patrick J. Lynch, has called for an end to a regularly occurring practice called “commissioner shopping” by cop-killers who have become eligible for parole.  The practice allows convicted cop-killers serving sentences of 25-years to life to adjourn a parole hearing in hopes of appearing before a more sympathetic panel. 

PBA president Patrick J. Lynch said:  “These cop-killers have developed the ability to identify which parole commissioners are holding hearings.  If those commissioners are not to their liking, they simply adjourn their hearing until a more favorable panel convenes.  This practice causes the families of the slain Police Officer to suffer the trauma of adjournment after adjournment with no official explanation victimizing them once again.  I have written to Chairwoman of the Parole Board and suggested a few simple policy changes that would provide a just hearing but remove the ability of these mutts to shop for sympathetic commissioners.” 

Lynch recommends the inmate’s status report meeting as the “most appropriate time to request and adjournment” and that the inmate should appear before the parole commissioners on the originally scheduled date to present the reason for such an adjournment.  The commissioners can then decide whether or not to allow the adjournment.  Finally, if an adjournment is approved, that the victim’s family should be notified of the adjournment and the reason it was granted.

Click here for the full text of Lynch’s letter.