Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

News

Alabama Pardons and Paroles Board chair resigns amid turmoil

Lyn Head, left, is sworn in to the Tuscaloosa County district attorney seat by Gov. Robert Bentley as Head's husband, Mark Caraway, looks on at the Tuscaloosa Rivermarket Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013. Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Head to fill the position Tommy Smith left vacant when he retired on Nov. 1. Head was sworn in that Friday. The formal swearing-in ceremony was held at the Tuscaloosa Rivermarket Wednesday and was attended by friends, family and members of Tuscaloosa's law enforcement and legal communities. Head worked as an assistant Tuscaloosa County District Attorney between 1999 and her appointment as District Attorney. She previously worked worked in the District Attorney's Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit in Bessemer, for the private Tuscaloosa firm Rosen, Harwood, Cook and Sledge (now Rosen Harwood PC) and Webb & Eley in Montgomery. She earned her law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1990. staff photo | Dusty Compton

Lyn Head, chair of the Alabama Pardons and Paroles Board, announced her resignation on Tuesday. 

Her departure comes amid years of turmoil at the bureau that has resulted in the removal of three staffers and the suspension of parole hearings until at least November 1. 

In a statement to APR on Wednesday Gov. Kay Ivey’s office said Ivey will begin the process to name Head’s replacement. 

“The governor thanks Lyn for her service to the state and wishes her well in her future endeavors,” the statement from Ivey’s office reads. “She remains committed to making needed reforms at the Board of Pardons and Paroles to help deliver justice and ensure public safety.” 

The Bureau of Pardons and Paroles on Sept. 9 announced that it could take weeks for those parole hearings to resume. The bureau’s director, Charlie Graddick, said at the time that the hearings were suspended so that staff could ensure legal requirements were met. The bureau’s news director, Skip Tucker told APR the suspensions were because notification requirements weren’t previously handled properly. On Sept. 12 the bureau announced that hearings won’t resume until at least Nov. 1. 

Problems surfaced after the parole of inmate Jimmy O’Neal Spencer, who was serving a life sentence for mostly non-violent crimes. Spencer is charged with capital murder in the deaths of three people in Guntersville, which took place after his 2017 release. 

Following Spencer’s latest charges Ivey signed into law changes to the bureau that included the governor’s power to appoint a director and a requirement that one board member must be a current or former law enforcement officer with at least 10 years of experience. 

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Ivey and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall have both supported the changes and said they’re needed to ensure the safety of citizens. 

”These changes are designed to increase accountability, set clear parameters, and make certain that no prisoner who is a threat to public safety can slip through the cracks,” Marshall said in April. 

In an email obtained by the WAAY-31 news station Head wrote in May to all bureau staff that “Our agency continues to be under attack, this week, in the legislature, by the Attorney General, who stated that we “are not following our own rules, and that our “system is broken.”

Attempts to reach Head on Wednesday were unsuccessful but Head told Al.com’s Mike Cason, who broke the story Tuesday, that while she didn’t now have comments on the suspensions of the three staff members or on Graddick’s statements about the notice requirements not being met, she did not believe the agency was broken. 

“It certainly was not my perception of what was going on,” Head told Al.com. 

Heard’s resignation becomes effective Oct. 1. The Montgomery attorney and former prosecutor has served on the board since Sept. 2016 and was appointed chair of the board by Gov. Kay Ivey in Oct. 2018.

Eddie Burkhalter is a reporter at the Alabama Political Reporter. You can email him at [email protected] or reach him via Twitter.

More from APR

Local news

Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling announced police officers were terminated in the aftermath of the Stephen Perkins shooting.

Health

The complaint alleged Steven Stokes is ineligible lead the commission while serving on the University of South Alabama Board of Trustees.

Governor

Advocates argued that debt-based suspensions only created further harm.

Opinion

In Alabama and the rest of the nation – when it comes to voting rights – we’ve still got a long way to go....