ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991                   TAG: 9103200424
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PAROLE AFTER STIFF SENTENCE IS STRANGE

I WAS SHOCKED and dismayed by the article about Thomas William Robinson. Here was a man 36 years old, convicted of an estimated 17 armed robberies, a three-time escapee from state and local jails, sentenced to serve five life sentences. Now he is charged in bank robberies in five cities, including Roanoke, Bedford and Lynchburg.

His partner, Jerry Lee Brewer, 35, doesn't appear much better: convicted of raping, robbing and sodomizing two women. He escaped from a maximum-security section of a state hospital while awaiting trial.

What were these men doing free? Why was a man serving five life sentences out on parole? It's no wonder we have such a problem with crime. Police apprehend a criminal, a judge or jury convicts and, sometimes, sentences him to prison; then someone, for some unknown reason, turns him loose on society again. Why sentence a person to 10 years if he's only going to serve six months?

The Parole Board should be made responsible for the actions of a criminal released before a substantial amount of his sentence is served. If the criminal commits another crime within his sentencing period, the board should be made to serve the balance of his time. GEORGE E. WILSON JR. ROANOKE 


 by CNB