Silly me. Here I thought only a judge — an individual who is charged with objectively meting out justice, highly trained in the law, duly empowered to pass a sentence, sits in a public forum, and typically publicly explicates that sentence from the bench after a criminal trial — has the power to impose a life sentence. Or indeed, any sentence.
Unlike Alaska’s “star chamber” Parole Board, a judge works in the open, is constrained by sentencing parameters and typically explains why he (or she) decides on the sentence imposed. It’s not a secretive process based solely on how the judge feels or his personal opinion.
The idea that a group of individuals who are not only untrained in the law but are biased — who may even be a victim or victims of a crime — can in secret substitute their judgment for that of the judge is not only appalling but outrageous.
By denying parole that the judge did not preclude, the parole board is in effect extrajudicially imposing a sentence. That it may do so in secret, based solely upon its members’ opinion that parole may somehow “diminish the seriousness of the crime,” should in itself be a crime.
— Michael Boshears
Palmer
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