THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130534
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HALIFAX, VA. LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
A man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping a 17-year-old girl, his second rape conviction in little more than four years.
Halifax County Circuit Judge William L. Wellons on Monday sentenced Albert W. Sweeney, 28, to 50 years for the February conviction, suspending 30 years. Sweeney will be eligible for parole in seven years.
Sweeney previously had been convicted of rape and sentenced to five years in April 1990. He was released in June 1992 at his mandatory parole date and finished his parole in December 1992. The 17-year-old was raped in August 1993.
``Why (did) they let him out to do this again?'' the girl's mother asked recently. ``They let him walk on the street and knowing what he did the first time.''
State officials said they had no choice.
``The Department of Corrections had no control of him after 12-29-92. And that's a shame. But that's the law,'' said John Metzger, chairman of the state Parole Board.
Proponents of Gov. George Allen's proposal to abolish parole and lengthen the sentences of violent offenders said the rape would not have occurred had the proposal been in place.
The General Assembly meets in special session Sept. 19 to discuss Allen's proposal.
``If Albert Sweeney is out on the street and physically able to do it, he will do this kind of offense again because he sees absolutely nothing wrong with what he has done,'' Commonwealth's Attorney John E. Greenbacker Jr. said in court Monday.
``There is nothing in his background to indicate he will change his attitude about women or his own behavior.''
Sweeney claimed the 17-year-old was a prostitute who agreed to have sex with him for $40. He also said he was drunk.
Police said Sweeney grabbed the girl as she was about to enter the South Boston apartment she shared with her grandmother, dragged the struggling teen-ager into a grove of trees and raped her.
KEYWORDS: RAPE CONVICTION by CNB