May 9, 2017
ALBANY, NY – Above is a video of Dale and Dori Robie, the parents of Derrick Robie, the four year old child who was murdered by Eric Smith in August of 1993.
Senator Tom O’Mara and Assemmblyman Phil Palmesano co-sponsor a bill to make longer periods between parole hearings. In a joint statement, O’Mara and Palmesano said, ““We’re not going to go away and we’re going to keep standing with Dale and Dori Robie and other families until ‘Lorraine’s Law’ becomes law. We’re continuing to call on the Assembly leadership to recognize the decency and fairness behind this action for the sake of the families of murder victims. Dale and Dori Robie and so many other families have to go on, every other year, reliving the pain and the horror of the crimes that took the lives they cherished. We need to finally show some compassion for these families.”
Dale and Dori, said, “We are in total support of ‘Lorraine’s Law’ and appreciate the efforts being made by state legislators to have it become law. We are committed to working with them to secure its enactment in Derrick’s memory and so that other families like ours, whose lives have been forever changed by a violent criminal, do not have to relive their ordeal every two years.”
O’Mara and Palmesano noted that Under existing law, the state Parole Board is required to allow inmates to request a parole hearing every two years. The legislation O’Mara and Palmesano co-sponsor would allow the Parole Board to extend the time period between parole hearings from two to five years for offenders convicted of the Class A-1 felonies of murder in the first or second degrees, or aggravated murder, where a sentence other than life imprisonment without parole is imposed. The board would still have the option to permit an earlier hearing.
