news-record.com

The sins of the 1970s are coming back to haunt North Carolina communities in the form of dangerous criminals set free because of lenient laws.

"I am appalled that the state of North Carolina is being forced to release prisoners who have committed the most heinous crimes, without any review of their cases," Gov. Bev Perdue said Thursday.

It is appalling. But the state is only being forced to take this action by its own laws. The governor can blame legislators of an earlier era who wrote those laws, which since have been replaced by tougher sentencing rules.

Two laws are at issue. The first, enacted in 1974, says: "A sentence of life in prison shall be considered as a sentence of imprisonment for a term of 80 years in the State's prisons." The second, from 1981, effectively cut prior sentences in half and required the Department of Correction to award inmates credit toward even earlier release for good behavior, work, study and other positive conduct.

A convicted double murderer sentenced to two life sentences in 1975, Bobby E. Bowden, petitioned for his release, claiming he had met the terms of his punishment. He was denied by a trial judge, but last year the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled in his favor. His two life sentences were presumed to run concurrently, not consecutively, the court said, citing a 1971 state Supreme Court decision. Each life sentence was meant by law to equal 80 years, which was reduced to 40 years, again by law. Without further comment, the state Supreme Court affirmed this ruling last week.

Bowden isn't a free man yet. The appeals court remanded his case to the trial court to calculate how much credit he has earned and to determine his release date. But a score of other offenders given life sentences during the same era already have come up winners and will be released later this month. More will follow. Some are murderers, some are rapists. They deserved to spend the rest of their lives in prison, but the law in place at the time dictates otherwise.

Lawmakers, confronted by escalating rates of violent crime, later toughened sentencing laws. Now life in prison means what it says, not 80 years. There is no parole, no credit for good behavior. But new laws can't be applied retroactively to offenders who committed earlier crimes. Their cases are ruled by the laws in place at the time.

Perdue said she's looking for a way to keep the offenders behind bars, but she is bound to carry out the laws of the state. The court said it can't impose limitations or restrictions that aren't contained in the law -- and neither can the governor.

The state will have to live with the consequences of its own past mistakes.