Posted on: Friday, November 30, 2001

Parole board wins sentencing appeal

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

By a 3-2 decision yesterday, the Hawai'i Supreme Court ruled that the Hawai'i Paroling Authority has the right to decide that a convicted person's minimum prison term can equal the maximum sentence imposed by the judge.

In other words, if the maximum prison term is five years, the Paroling Authority can also set the minimum term at five years and is not required to hold a parole hearing prior to the end of the five-year period.

Under state law, judges sentence convicted defendants to a maximum length of time in prison. It's then up to the Hawai'i Paroling Authority to determine the minimum term they must serve before they can be released on parole.

Yesterday's decision overturned a November 2000 ruling by the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals which held that all prisoners, except those sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, are entitled to a parole hearing that must be held substantially before the end of the maximum term.

The initial appeal was filed on behalf of Gregory Williamson, who was convicted of one count each of second-degree assault and second-degree burglary. He was sentenced in January 1998 to two concurrent terms of five years' imprisonment. A short while later, the paroling authority set Williamson's minimum terms at five years. The Intermediate Court of Appeals then ruled that Williamson was entitled to a parole hearing prior to the end of his maximum term.

The Hawai'i Paroling Authority then appealed the Intermediate Court of Appeals decision to the Hawai'i Supreme Court, which reversed the lower court.

Paroling Authority Chairman Al Beaver yesterday said that it is unusual for his panel to make a prisoner's minimum sentence equal to the maximum term allowed by law.

"A person really has to be kind of a nasty person for us to max them out," Beaver said. "You see it sometimes in the case of repeat offenders or career criminals."

But even convicts whose minimum sentences are set to coincide with maximum allowable terms have an option to get their time behind bars reduced, Beaver said.

"They can always apply for a reduction of minimum sentence," Beaver said.