news-record.com

Gov. Bev Perdue barred the prison door last week, blocking the release of 20 violent offenders until "new legal issues" are resolved.

She had to go back 26 years to find those "new" issues. Whether they'll hold up in court is a big question.

The governor is taking a risk legally but not politically. The public was shocked when the N.C. Supreme Court affirmed earlier this month that a 1974 state law defined a term of "life" in prison as 80 years and that a later law effectively cut 80 years to 40. It meant that murderers and rapists sentenced to life in the 1970s suddenly were eligible for release, if time off for good conduct was counted.

Perdue said she was "appalled" and vowed to find a way to stop the release. Although traveling in Asia, she spoke with reporters by phone and even joked that she might end up in jail herself for defying the court.

That's not likely. Her legal team seemed to find a way to at least delay, if not derail, the inmates' release. It dug up a 1983 Department of Correction policy, no longer in force, that granted inmates the chance to earn generous reductions in their sentences.

The governor now contends Correction officials had no legal authority to make these murderers and rapists eligible for good-conduct credits.

If that was such a good argument, state lawyers might have used it before now. Nevertheless, they'll give it a try when the case of convicted killer Bobby E. Bowden goes back to court.

The state's appellate courts agreed Bowden's life sentence amounted to only 40 years and remanded his case to the trial court for calculation of his "sentence reduction credits." If the trial court erases some or all of the credits granted under the 1983 policy, Bowden's incarceration will be extended -- and the same recalculation can be applied to other offenders.

This will keep them in prison, at most, only until they finish their 40 years. But even that would spare the public the threat of their release in the near future. Perdue's stance will garner praise from people understandably afraid of dangerous offenders returning to their communities.

Yet, more questions are raised. Prior to all this commotion, three of the 20 prisoners were recommended for release by the state's parole commission. Will the governor's order override those decisions? Furthermore, dozens of inmates given life sentences in the 1970s already have been released on parole -- after their parole-eligibility dates were moved up because of good-conduct credits. Unless the governor plans to order them rounded up and thrown back into prison, she's potentially creating a situation where credits are calculated one way for some offenders and differently for others.

Then there's the issue of how far a governor can or should maneuver around a court ruling she doesn't like.

Perdue now says she is not defying the courts but seeking to protect the public from the consequences of past errors. The public approves, but the courts will have the final say.