Mary Ann Ilyankoff, 72, of Fort Lauderdale, seems to spend much of her life appearing before the Florida Parole Commission. This week, says the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, she made the trip for at least the 15th time as the panel considered releasing three men sentenced to life for the murder of her husband, Walter, a police officer shot in 1974 in a restaurant robbery. The Sun-Sentinel describes what it’s like for a victim’s relative to relive the case constantly.
In this case, the board was considering the cases of Alvin Lewis, 55; George DeCosta, 58, and Henry Robinson, 60 – all serving life sentences. Lewis was paroled once but went back to prison on a subsequent conviction. David Mack, an inmate advocate, said he had been in a successful prison transition program for 11 years and was “highly unlikely” to commit more crimes. The commission didn’t buy it. After hearing from Ilyankoff and others, it pushed Robinson’s earliest parole date back to 2052, when he would be 105 years old, and denied parole for DeCosta and Lewis.
Link: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbparole1115nbnov15,0,7164417.story?coll=sofla_t