Another Brutal Killer Walks Free

The State Parole Board has once again demonstrated a reckless disregard for justice with this week’s decision to release convicted killer Richard LaBarbera. This monster, along with his convicted accomplice Robert McCain, brutally assaulted, raped, and murdered 16-year-old Paula Bohovesky. Neither of these men should ever be set free.

To date, neither of these convicts have ever repented for their crimes and they continue to blame one another for the heinous torture and murder of an innocent teenager.
Just a month ago, Lois Bohovesky, Paula’s mother, implored the State Parole Board to deny LaBarbera’s request for freedom. They ignored her, and thousands of others who opposed his release and set free the man who brutally took Paula’s young life.

Put simply, this is a disgraceful act by the Parole Board, and it adds to the growing list of vicious convicts that have recently been released – killers like Herman Bell, Matthew Solomon, and Judith Clark, the getaway driver in the deadly Brink's heist which saw two police officers senselessly slaughtered.

This is just one more example of how Governor Cuomo’s hand-picked parole board is out of control, and how one-party rule in our state government is not working in the best interests of millions of hardworking, law-abiding citizens.

Shame on the Parole Board, shame on Governor Cuomo, and shame on the Democrats in the state legislature for allowing this madness to continue.

Earlier this year, my Senate Republican colleagues and I put forth a landmark “Victims’ Justice Agenda” to restore a sense of justice, responsibility and common sense to New York State’s criminal justice system.

It is my hope that you will support our efforts and the comprehensive package of Senate Republican-sponsored legislation, which aims to reform the parole system to keep violent criminals behind bars without parole and ease the parole process for suffering victims and families like the Bohoveskys’.

Specific provisions of the Victims’ Justice Agenda include:

· Providing that the sentence for murder in the first degree shall be life imprisonment without parole;
· Authorizing the imposition of life imprisonment without parole for persistent violent felony offenders; and
· Requiring that all comments and testimony made by a third party either in support or opposition in a parole hearing shall be considered when coming to a decision.

To review the complete Victims’ Justice Agenda, visit my Senate website, where our legislation is posted under "Victims' Justice Agenda."