7 more lifers make list

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More inmates set for release from prison

The state Department of Correction today identified seven more inmates who are covered by a recent state Supreme Court ruling that ordered the release next week of 20 murderers, rapists and robbers sentenced to life in prison during the 1970s.

The new list includes Joseph Seaborn, 55, convicted of murder in the 1975 shooting in Martin County of state Trooper Guy Davis. A co-defendant in the Davis case, Faye B. Brown, was among the 20 inmates identified originally to be released.

The state Supreme Court ruled this month that state law between 1974 and 1978, when the inmates were sentenced, defined a life sentence as 80 years in prison, and a second law effectively cut those sentences in half. Lawyers for some of the inmates argued successfully that credits for good behavior in prison mean that the inmates can be released now.

Perdue: No release until 2054

Gov. Bev Perdue said Thursday that a group of violent offenders who are serving life sentences from the 1970s won't be released from prison until at least 2054.

Perdue said the N.C. Department of Correction will not award time off for good behavior, which was a key point in a court's determination that a Fayetteville inmate who was serving a life sentence for a double homicide is due for release.

Perdue's new math will surely lead to a lawsuit from the inmates since she had previously announced that her administration was required to release them.

State forced to free 20 violent criminals

Twenty murderers, rapists and robbers sentenced to life in North Carolina prisons in the 1970s will be released at the end of October as a result of recent court rulings.

Most of the inmates are in their 50s and 60s, but many of them were convicted years ago of gruesome crimes that might have kept them locked up longer today. One of them successfully petitioned the courts to recognize that old laws defined a life sentence as 80 years, and that another law cut those sentences in half.

Ten of those scheduled to be released were sex offenders, including men who raped young girls. Seven have spent time on death row. The one woman in the group was convicted of murdering a state trooper while fleeing a bank robbery.

State parole board rejected 17 of 20

This year, state parole commissioners decided that 17 of the 20 inmates who were set to be released next week thanks to a court order were not fit to go home.

The commission deemed the other three ready to rejoin society and put them on track to be turned loose next year.

Until 1994, those sentenced to spend the rest of their days in prison had a chance at freedom. If they could convince the parole commissioners that they had learned their lesson and picked up skills and education to succeed, they could rejoin the free world.

E-mail shows state planned to release lifers

In December, Department of Correction officials and a lawyer for the state's attorney general said in court that prison officials never authorized the release of inmates sentenced to life in the 1970s and never promised them they were going home.

E-mail messages and memos exchanged within the department show that his staff considered the releases certain.

Dozens of communications between Oct. 9 and Oct. 22 show that Correction officials planned to release the inmates by month's end and began prepping them for life outside. Staff officials talked with their families, assigned them parole officers to ease the transition and told the sex offenders to register with the sheriffs of their home counties.