Carlos Flores was 17 when he and three accomplices tried to rob a bar in Queens, N.Y., in 1981. An off-duty police officer named Robert Walsh intervened, and he was shot and killed.
Mr. Flores was convicted of second-degree murder, a conviction that carried a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. But because he was not the shooter, the judge gave him 21 years to life. Mr. Flores is now 54. He has served 37 years behind bars. The last time he got written up for a disciplinary offense was when he disobeyed an order to keep the mess hall line moving. That was more than 25 years ago. A recent risk-assessment test found that his release would pose the lowest risk of danger to the public. In other words, he’s the sort of person parole is designed for.
And yet for the 16 years, the New York State Parole Board has denied him parole, using its customary boilerplate language: “Discretionary release at this time,” the board said in its most recent denial, last October, “would not be compatible with the welfare of society and would tend to deprecate the seriousness of the instant offense and undermine respect for the law.”
[For more on this story by the Editorial Board, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0...2Fopinion-editorials]
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