Order to Free N.C. Inmates Trumped on Appeal

By Mandy Locke - Staff writer

The State Court of Appeals has ordered that two inmates not be released this evening, trumping the decision by a superior court judge to set them free. Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand ruled early Monday that two inmates sentenced to life in the 1970s should be freed; prison officials were preparing to release them at 5 p.m. today.

Lawyers for the state asked the Court of Appeals to grant an emergency stay this afternoon, arguing that the release of the inmates would pose a significant public safety threat. A full hearing on the matter will be scheduled in the future.

Rand's order comes less than a week after Alford Jones and Faye Brown, both convicted of murder, argued that they were being illegally detained by North Carolina prison officials.

The state's highest courts have ruled that life sentences imposed between 1974 and 1978 amounted to 80 years. Brown and Jones argued that credits earned for good behavior, working while in prison and earning degrees made them eligible for release now.

Prison officials argued that they never awarded credits to these inmates for anything other than consideration of parole or changing their grade of custody.

In his order, Rand acknowledged the prison system's method of awarding credits but said that policy has been wrong.

"The Court concludes that the Department of Correction's interpretation of its regulations regarding the award of sentence reduction credits is clearly erroneous, and that a different reading is compelled by the plain language of the regulations," he wrote.

Rand's ruling could affect dozens of other inmates sentenced to life in prison in the 1970s whose fate has been in limbo for months. The governor and prison officials vowed to fight the inmates' release after initially announcing that a court ruling this fall would force the state to release them.

Lawyers for the state could ask the judge to delay their release while they appeal the matter to the Court of Appeals.