BOSTON—The father of a 27-year-old teacher who was raped and stabbed to death by a repeat offender and the brother of a police officer who was allegedly killed by a paroled felon are urging Massachusetts lawmakers to toughen the state's parole system.
The hearing Wednesday at the Statehouse follows the December shooting death of Woburn police Officer John Maquire, allegedly at the hands of a paroled career criminal who had received three previous life terms.
Les Gosule, who has pushed for tougher parole requirements since his daughter Melissa Gosule was murdered in 1999, said Maquire's death a dozen years later lends more urgency to the demands.
"In that 12-year period how many women were raped? How many people were murdered?" Gosule asked the Judiciary Committee. "We're allowing habitual violent offenders to come in and out of that jail cell to violate and hurt someone else."
Melissa Gosule was killed by Michael Gentile, a Falmouth man who had 27 convictions but had served less than two years in prison. After her car broke down on July 11, 1999, Gosule accepted a ride from Gentile, who posed as a Good Samaritan. She was found eight days later in a shallow grave.
Lawmakers also heard from Chuck Maguire, the brother of John Maguire, one of several officers who responded to 911 calls about a robbery at the
Police said 57-year-old career criminal Dominic Cinelli fired the fatal shots. He died in the gunfight.
In 1986, Cinelli was sentenced to life in prison in Suffolk County and later received two concurrent life sentences for crimes committed in Middlesex County. In 2008, the Massachusetts Parole Board voted unanimously to release Cinelli after he testified that he had turned his life around.
Chuck Maguire, who worked as a probation officer for 35 years, said he understands that people can be rehabilitated, but he said most violent felons should be required to serve a decent amount of time before being paroled.
"Most people in Massachusetts believe that a life sentence is a life sentence," he said. "Now we find it isn't."
Gov. Deval Patrick, who in January accepted the resignations of the five board members who voted to parole Cinelli, has filed a bill that would require anyone convicted of a third serious felony to receive the maximum sentence and begin serving it only after completing any previous sentences.
The bill would also allow parole for those repeat offenders only after they have served two-thirds of their sentences or, if sentenced to life, after 25 years.
Currently, offenders can be paroled after serving half of their sentence, or 15 years for a life term.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has filed a separate bill named after Melissa Gosule that would bar parole for anyone sentenced for a third serious felony.
David White, past president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, said both proposals go too far because they don't specify that the third felony must be violent.
"It sweeps up too many people because it doesn't define the felonies ... as violent crimes," White said. "That's not necessarily in the best interest of society."
He also said that most people in prison will eventually be released and the state has to ensure that they are given the support needed to avoid slipping back into crime.
Barbara Dougan, director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said the state has to guard against drawing too many offenders into lengthy or life sentences.
"We are casting our net far too wide and we will end up with unintended consequences," she said.
The Senate co-chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee, Cynthia Creem, said the committee is looking for "a rapid and effective response" to the call for tougher measures, but doesn't want to react to any one tragedy.
"We're doing this, if we do something, because it's the right thing to do," said Creem, D-Newton. "It's very complicated."
Melissa Gosule's family urged the committee to act, saying they don't want to keep returning to the Statehouse to press their case.
"She missed my wedding day. She will never meet my husband. She will never have the chance to fall in love and get married herself," said Melissa's sister Heidi Gosule. "She will never have the chance to have her own family."
