00:00:00
Speaker 1: It's Dany Boston's Radio.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to change topics here, and you know, I've been pretty critical of Governor Healy in the last few months on a number of matters, but I have to commend her tonight and I want to talk about what is going on at the parole board here in Massachusetts. Earlier this year, I believe it was earlier this year. I could be no, not earlier this year would have been last year. The Massachusetts State Supreme Court issued an opinion which, in my opinion, was issued I guess it was a year ago. In my opinion, was just dead wrong, dead wrong, and essentially said that in Massachusetts, the way it works is if you commit a murder, then you're you were convicted of murder in the first read, you are automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole. One of the arguments that the people that posted the death penalty made twenty years ago was, hey, look, you know the death penalty is the easy way out for these guys these murderers. Put them in a prison for the rest of their lives meant that will make them think about their victims every day for the rest of their lives. Well, The only murderer that I know who ever asked to go to the death chamber was a Timothy McVeigh, the guy that drove his truck into the Oklahoma Federal Office building and killed what it was, you know, one hundred and sixty people, including children, back in the mid nineteen nineties, and he ordered or he instructed his lawyers to drop all appeals because he wanted to get it over with. Most murderers when they are facing the death penalty, they use every possible appeal they can. So what happened was our state Supreme Court decided about a year ago that anyone who was under the age of twenty one had committed murder before. I forget the date on it. I think it was two thousand and four. I don't want to be incorrect on this, but I think that is the date that they could have their murder in the first degree decision sentence reviewed. Not that they would automatically be released from prison. But what has happened is that so far in the last year, the parole Board has issued fifty one decisions since the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that. And again the phrase they use emerging adults those who were eighteen to twenty years old at the time that they were they committed the murder for which they were convicted again murder in the first degree. Okay, they are the thirty nine the board has okayed, of the fifty one decisions, thirty nine convicted first degree murderers had been released here in Massachusetts. That's not a bad percentage rate, thirty nine out of fifty one. If you could get you know, if you could win thirty nine games and losing twelve games because they denied parole to twelve inmates, you read thirty nine and twelve, that's a pretty good record. When you think about that, say, as a pro football team for four years, about fifty games or whatever would it would be. Again, I don't mean to diminish it, but it's a seventy six percent release rate for this group. So now, one of the most heinous murders in the history of Massachusetts was the murder of Massachusetts Police Trooper George Hannah that occurred in Massachusetts on February twenty sixth, nineteen eighty three, in Auburn, Massachusetts, just south of Worcestern. There was a group that Trooper Hannah pulled over that night, and there were I believe three men and two women in a car, and he asked them to get out of the car. And when he did, one of them, a man named Jose Cologne, basically executed the trooper shot him six times from close range. There. It was a shocking crime. It was a shocking crime. And the name George Hannah has lived for many years in the spirit of the Hannah Awards, the Hannah Memorial Awards for bravery see the annual ceremony that is named in his honor that recognizes valor among law enforcement officers. This murder occurred forty three years ago. So this guy who was twenty at the time of the murder and I was sixty three.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: And.
00:05:16
Speaker 2: The Governor more Healy, who is you know? I never considered her to be, you know, particularly tough on crime, she said, given she wrote to the parole board, and I got to congratulate her for doing this. Given the extraordinary significance this case, this case holds for our state, I believe it is necessary to voice my clear and unequivocal opposition to Jose Cologne's release. Massachusetts rightly holds Truehannah's name as a symbol of honor and valor. Releasing the individual who fired the shots that killed Troopehanna would diminish the meaning of the very leg we continue to uphold and would send a dangerous signal that deliberate killing of a police officer is anything less than the most hamous, heinous of crimes. Now, again, the Parole Board doesn't look at this guy as a murderer. He looks at him as an emerging adult. He's sixty three years old, but since he committed the murder when he was twenty, he was a mere child. That was what the state Supreme Court ruled a year ago. I believe it was a four to three decision. And as I mentioned, the state Parole Board now has released thirty nine convicts people who were convicted of first degree murder. They were sentenced, they were sentenced to life in prison without parole. But here in Massachusetts we never ever ever punished people as we promise. We took away the death penalty, and now we are taking away life in prison without parole for people who kill under the age of twenty one. So if you want to kill someone, make sure you kill them before you turn twenty one. In Massachusetts, I mean that's pretty perverse to say that, but that is the reality. And don't think that there aren't young people, maybe just gang bangers whose lives are in greater danger now because the potential killers think to themselves, well, I can now off somebody and I'll get out eventually. You might take ten years, maybe take twenty years, but I'm an emerging adult. Heally went on to write, and they're quoting here from the Boston Herald article this morning. I'm not sure if this was in the Globe. I think it was, but I don't have the globe in front of me. I recognize that the board must evaluate parole matters within its legal mandate and established criteria. The Governor wrote, nothing in this letter is intended to lessen that duty or substitute my judgment for yours. Although she appoints the parole board. I write to state plainly that the nature of this offense, the magnitude of its harm, the welfare of this state, and the enduring public significance of Troop Ahanna's sacrifice weighed decisively against release. For these reasons, I strongly urged the board to deny parole for Jose Cologne. Now the Supreme court decision that basically set the situation here is Commonwealth versus Madis. So we have two hundred people who are in prison for murder without parole. We're not talking about pickpockets. We're not talking even about rapists. We're talking about murderers in the first degree Troopers. According to the governor, Troopers's family, including his wife, Marilyn and their three children, Deborah, Kimberly, and Michael, have lived with this unimaginable loss ever since. This offense inflicted profound and lasting harm. In a civil society, law enforcement officers, this is the governor's world. It's not mine, but I commender for them. In a civil society, law enforcement officers uphold the laws that allow our communities to live in peace and safety. The intentional killing of an officer in the line of duty is not only a brutal crime against one person. It is a violent assault on the rule of law and on the institutions the public depends on for safety and justice. Its impact is carried across generations by a grieving family and shouldered by a law enforcement community that will always remember and mourn it's fallen. The award, the Hinner Award reads it is an opportunity to publicly recognize the bravery of members of the law enforcement community who put their lives in the line by dedicating themselves to safety. Throughout Massachusetts, nearly two hundred people have received the Hanner Award, two hundred people involved in law enforcement. Heally writes, each year these awards remind all of us of the magnet of Troop Hannah's sacrifice, the pain suffered by his loved ones, and our obligation to honor his service. They also recognize that significant risks assumed by those who serve and the sacrifices made by families who support them. Troopa Hannah's family has continued to honor his legacy in a deeply tangible way, the Governor added. His daughters, Deborah and Kimberly, still present the awards in his name, keeping their father's memory central to the Commonwealth's recognition of courage and dedicational law enforcement. For the past ten years, the governor writes, she has personally sat with Deborah and Kimberly at the Hannah Awards ceremony and have witnessed the pain they continued to endure because of their father's brutal murder. Governor, thank you for that letter. I will continue to criticize Governor Healy when I think she is wrong, but on this point she is spot on. I would love to hear from you. I would again, this is not something you think about most of you, if you do not have family members who are out tonight protecting all of us in small departments, major cities, and on the roads of the comwalth of Massachusetts. But I would like to hear from all of you, and I mean that all of you and denounce this court decision four to three, which never should have been written, never should have been issued. And these inmates who took the lives of individuals with premeditation and deliberation and aggravating circumstances, and they were sentenced to life in prison without parole, that sentence should be completed. Life in prison without parole means exactly what it is. But here in Massachusetts it doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that for a so called emerging adults. I would like to hear some outrage. If I don't, I'll be sorely disappointed. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty let's go to the owns. Right after this very quick break.
00:12:03
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
00:12:08
Speaker 2: Well, very rarely does my audience disappoint me, but you disappoint me right now. Is it that you can't say something nice about Governor Heally. Governor Healy did the right thing by writing this letter to the parole Board. I'm sure that there's a lot of people within her base who are not happy that she would oppose the parole for the killer of Massachusettstate Police Trooper George Hannah. This is an abomination. You know, last hour, it's funny we talked last hour about people leaving Massachusetts. Well, here's a good reason to leave Massachusetts. Okay, you can talk about the fact that homes are too expensive, there's an affordability issue, that taxes have just continued to go up, a lot of good reasons to consider leaving that Massachusetts. But here's thirty nine good reasons to leave Massachusetts. And the thirty nine good reasons to leave Massachusetts are the thirty nine convicted first degree murderers who have now been given parole by the state Parole Board because of this stupid, idiotic decision by the Massachusetts State Supreme Court, which somehow decided in their wisdom, their just extraordinary wisdom, that just because someone was under the age of twenty one when they decided to execute a police officer by shooting him at close range six times, that that person now is an emerging adult and they need to be welcomed back into society because they have somehow found Jesus in prison. Well, a lot of people find Jesus in prison. Some of them find him for all the right reasons. Others find him as an excuse. They'll find some phony Bologney minister or priest who goes in there and says, oh, this guy's turned his life around. Well, I don't want to gamble with thirty nine convicted first degree murderers walking the streets of Massachusetts. Well, then I assume being able to go to other states and kill other people. This is an insane decision. And I just want to again, I want to congratulate Governor Heally. She did the right thing here, and I had the guts and I have the courage to say. I might not agree with her on a lot of issues, but in this one, she stood up. She wrote a letter that she can be proud of that will stand the test of time. And this court all, well, the four of them that wrote the majority opinion or joined in the majority opinion, they should be ashamed of themselves for them to dishonor the memory of those individuals, not only State Police Trooper Hannah who was murdered by this creep forty three years ago, but life with life in prison without parole is what the legislature said was the sentence. That's the that's the sentence that should have been carried out for each and every one of these guys. They were convicted. If there's a problem with the conviction, appeal the conviction, I was very much involved with the Salvadi Liamoni case. Okay, I know how it works. Okay. Is the system perfect?
00:15:23
Speaker 4: No?
00:15:24
Speaker 2: Are there people who get convicted wrongfully unintentionally? Yeah, okay, and and we can deal with that. But on these most heinous crimes, there aren't too many people who are convicted wrongfully six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty John and Rockport. John, you were first this hour at night side. I appreciate the fact that you would call and speak. I hope in favor of Governor Healey's letter and on in support of police and Massageusetts and innocent victims of people who commit first degree murder.
00:16:05
Speaker 5: Don't you even taking my car? I couldn't agree more with that letter. I can't believe this. I can't believe it. Thirty nine people walking the streets that have committed first degree murder? Yep, what's going on?
00:16:18
Speaker 2: Welcome to Massachusetts, John, Welcome to Massachusetts. I mean, you know, we talk about one issues here every night of the week, and this is an important issue. I think you know. I know that everybody's wrapped up in the Patriots game this weekend, which is fine, but this is more important to the quality of life in Massachusetts than whether the Patriots go to the super Bowl or win the super Bowl. This is a matter of life and death. Where where peap thirty nine first degree murderers. They've considered only twenty five percent of the cases. There's two hundred cases that are eventually going to go in front of the parole bo They have released thirty nine of the fifty two, which is a seventy six percent release rate.
00:17:07
Speaker 5: There's one hundred possibility. There's a possibility they'll do it again.
00:17:11
Speaker 2: Well, absolutely, there's a possibility. But what is even more frightening is that our state Supreme Court when they they they considered fifty cases, they released three quarters of them. They have another one hundred and fifty. I suspect that they'll release three quarters of those cases as well. Oh my, so we're going to have more than thirty nine. I mean, and if they do release this Jose Cologne who murdered you know, Troopehanna, who had the audacity to pull the car over on that nine in nineteen eighty three in Arburn, Massachusetts, and he basically they executed this police.
00:17:51
Speaker 5: Officer shot him six times.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, six times? Yes, absolutely absolutely.
00:17:59
Speaker 5: I feel so if I can right, please tell the hand of family. I'm so sorry, and I'm praying to God that you know what I mean, they can get through this. They probably they can't. They lost their father.
00:18:12
Speaker 2: Well, they've gone through this so many times now with parole hearings, and now they have a parole hearing that there's so many families that you know, in a murder case where someone gets parole, you can parole eligible second degree murder fifteen years in Massachusetts. They took away the death penalty about twenty five years ago, and now they are taking away first degree murder for anyone under the age of twenty one. So if you get into a beef with someone under the age of twenty one and they think they're gonna kill you, just give them your money, give them the car, whatever you want, because they're gonna be smart enough to know they are never gonna go away for life without parole.
00:18:52
Speaker 5: They are gonna happen in the role the courts say they're emerging adult.
00:18:57
Speaker 2: That's the phrase they're using. What are you commis? What a euphemism? An emerging adult? John, thank you so much for your support. I appreciate it. I hope they hear her family's listening. Okay, thanks John, Okay, thank you, Dan. Good night boy. I'll tell you six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty Why people are not jumping at their phones on this one I don't understand. But guess what. This is the state you live in, This is where and I don't know if people are not smart enough to understand this. I can't believe that we have the news at the bottom of the eyre will take a news break h this is an opportunity for you to say thank you to the governor. I don't care if you disagree with every position she's ever taken. Why would you not commend her for this? This was an incredibly well written and well reasoned letter. And as I say, I am not her biggest supporter, but when she's right, she needs to have our support and without you know, we can go open lines of this boys six one seven, six one, seven thirty coming right back on night Side.
00:20:08
Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on wb Boston's news radio.
00:20:14
Speaker 2: I'm confused here. I'm totally confused by the fact that these lines are not red hot because this is an abomination. What is being done not only to the hand of family, the fact that even the hand of family has to sit has to sit at another parole hearing for this piece of garbage. UH is beyond me. Uh. And why we here in Massachusetts will sit back even when we have a governor who on this issue is done the has done the right thing and has spoken. I'm sure there are people in her base, you know, who disagree with this, but she's done the right thing. Let me go to Eileen and Cambridge. Eileen, I appreciate your calling in your thoughts on this one.
00:20:59
Speaker 4: I lean, well, I just felt it was absolutely necessary to call in on this. You asked us to call in, and and I I am really terrified to drive through certain areas of Boston because I don't want to come up against somebody with a gun. Yeah, And it's scary out there, and.
00:21:36
Speaker 2: It is very Look, look, this does not this does not augur. Well. Uh. And I don't think you have a thing to worry about, Eileen. And I mean that when I say that to you. Honestly, I think that what this court decision has done, in my opinion, besides giving first degree murderers, some two hundred first degree murderers or so called emerging adults a chance to rejoin society, okay. Uh. And I don't care if if I am not a bleeding heart. Uh And on this issue, I don't think mar Heally is a bleeding heart. I'll tell you who should be concerned. Anybody who's young, uh and and finds themselves out on the streets, you know, dealing in these sort of country. Read about it all the time. You know that that two people were shot and one people died. Uh in a in a in a in a in an incident that might have been involved in some sort of a gang shootout.
00:22:41
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:22:42
Speaker 2: These these kids, when they when they realized that that murderers, first degree murderers are going back on the street, their attitude is going to be I'll do whatever I want. There was a police officer, corrections officer who told me many years ago. He said, the reason that most there were so many kids who were involved in gangs and drug activities and gun activities, He said, they don't think they're going to live past twenty. So therefore they don't feel they have anything to lose if they shoot and kill someone, because you know, their lifespan is not what your lifespan is, or mine, or the average lifespan. The average it's twenty. And here we have the Governor of the Commonwealth who's no bleeding heart, who has taking a really strong stand. And I would hope that, but I'm not satisfied that my audience would would say, Hey, whether you agree with Governor Heally on other issues or not, she did the right thing here and she's fighting this and she's told the prole board this guy should not get out. He executed a police officer he executed a police officer. He should not.
00:23:54
Speaker 4: She did the right thing, and you did the right thing by bringing it up on the radio. That's shocking to hear that there are people, young people who don't believe they'll live past the age of twenty.
00:24:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. No. I have a friend of mine, a dear friend who's a probation officer, who twenty years ago, he told me that. He said, Dan, I said, how come these kids are going out joining gangs, getting involved in shootouts. I mean, it's not happening in Wellesley and Weston, as you know, It's happening often, most often in the inner city. And I think that there's a lot of people who don't care. I care about these kids' lives. If you're fifteen, sixteen, eighteen years old and you're growing up in Wellesley and parents and Weston with two parents in your family, you know, you probably are guided. You're probably going to do some dumb things. But the dumbest thing you might do is start smoking marijuana. You know, are having a b uh, but you're not out with a gang bank as a gang banger. And I don't think a lot of people care. I think they look at those people, those those young people in places like Roxby, Dorchester, Mattapan as collateral damage, and you know they don't particularly care. And I think I do, and I know you do, and I think these.
00:25:21
Speaker 5: Are the people who.
00:25:22
Speaker 2: I'm worried about.
00:25:22
Speaker 4: You know, so right, And I don't want to drive through those areas of Boston. And if Trump is going to send troops in to keep order, that there's a good place to start, I would.
00:25:37
Speaker 2: Think, well, there's a lot of good places to start, that's for sure. I lean. I thank you so much for calling in tonight. You've restored my faith a little bit in my audience. But there's a lot of voices that I would have expected would have popped these lines and as quickly, a lot quicker than that. Thank you, Eileen. Will talk soon. Okay, thanks so much happening.
00:25:55
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you for bringing this up.
00:25:57
Speaker 2: Okay, thank thanks, thanks for joining us. Thanks. Let me go next to We're gonna go to John in New York. Hey, John, I know that you're in another state, but if it can happen in Massachusetts, believe me, it can happen in New York as well.
00:26:13
Speaker 6: Yes, uh, Dan, good evening.
00:26:15
Speaker 7: I'm really in shock here in this. I just turned the radio along. I can't believe what I'm hearing. These people in the court, each psychiatric help many.
00:26:25
Speaker 2: They are they are detached from reality. Okay, you know all of them are political. Point and by and by the way, let me very be very clear. Many of the people on this in this decision in the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. I'm not gonna be arguing any cases in front of the State Supreme Court anytime soon. But many of these individuals were appointed by Republican by by Charlie Baker. Some were appointed by Governor Heally. But but this is not like a bunch of seven h you know, we have a seven member Supreme Court. It's not as if you have seven crazy rest of Democrats. Some of these are Republicans. And they decided that if you've killed somebody murder in the first degree, and you're under the age of twenty one, even though you were sentenced to life in prison without parole, you have a right, you have a right to get a parole hearing now. And the Parole Board has released thirty nine out of fifty two first degree murderers, and they still have another one hundred and fifty to deal with that's a seven hundred and sixty. Well, that's a seventy six percent rate in baseball terms, that's a batting average of seven sixty.
00:27:35
Speaker 7: Crazy, you know, Dan, if it's really true, if your first degree murder, that's proven that it's the total truth. Yeah, you should be sitting in an electric chair, and they should tell avise it so people see what's going to happen to you when you misbehave yourself like that.
00:27:52
Speaker 2: Well, we get rid of the death penalty in Massachusetts. You don't have the death penalty in New York. And one of the arguments was, oh, make the stay in prison for the rest of their lives because the death penalty is the easy way out. Well, the only murderer that I know that ever said give me the chair was Timothy McVeigh. Everybody else fights it tooth and nail. And now first degree murderers are being released at a rate of seventy six percent in Massachusetts. What is it about that number that my audience doesn't understand.
00:28:26
Speaker 7: Because Donald Trump had the power by executive more to stop.
00:28:30
Speaker 2: No, sir, no, sir no, that's that's a ruling from the Massachusetts State Supreme Court.
00:28:38
Speaker 7: But he is the power to pardon people in prison?
00:28:41
Speaker 2: We can well, no, he is. He has the right to pardon people in federal prison. He doesn't have the right to pardon people who are convicted in the states, in the courts of Massachusetts or the courts of New York. Okay, Nor does he have a chance to come in as as emperor and override the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. That's the problem. That's the problem, Jokay, joy Man, I thank you for joining us.
00:29:11
Speaker 7: Listen, not gonna go quick. I know you have other people, but the thing is you're in the position. You have the power that brought gestation. If you want to, you can pursue getting all the audience to rebel against this. You have the power, work on it.
00:29:24
Speaker 2: Well, I have. I have the power, John, But the only power I have is when people decide to join the conversation, and if they don't have enough guts to call in on this issue, I'm I'm just stunned, to be honest with you, I thought that the phone lines, the phone lines are starting to fill up, But I figured the phone lines would have been filled when we began to talk about this. This was a high profile murder in Massachusetts of a state police who was executed. He was more than murdered, he was executed. And I hate to say that, but that's the truth. But John, I appreciate it. I appreciate Dan. All right, thank you very much. John. I will fight as long and as hard as I can. It's as simple as that. But when people are sitting on their hands at.
00:30:08
Speaker 7: Home tonight, yeah, Dan, don't just just things fight tonight being up some other knights. Maybe the people just aren't listening and it's just a coincidental thing.
00:30:17
Speaker 2: There's plenty of people listening. We have a good idea, John, how many people listening. But a lot of people don't have the guts or the backbone to call and uh and raise their voice because they're afraid that that some neighbor, some friend of theirs might disagree with them, and they might they might hear them. Oh my god. If I say, you know, you have some courage. You don't care if someone recognizes your voice and says, hey, John, I heards you in the radio the other night. So anyway, John, thank you much. John, appreciate Thank you, my friend. The only line that's open is two right here, six one, seven, nine three ten thirty. If you have the guts to call in, great, if you don't want to stay cowering, coming back on my side.
00:30:56
Speaker 1: You're on night side with Dan Ray. I'm Austin's News Radio.
00:31:01
Speaker 2: I look at the transcript of someone who called the station, and I give her courage. She said, oh, she said, Uh, Dan, I think in this case I might disagree with you and with Mara Heally. I mean, you know, it's not like you know, he's being let out in his thirties. He's in his sixties, and he has, you know, been in prison all these years. You know, he hasn't Maybe you don't think that was punishment was enough. I know, I don't know. Well, anyway, I'm gonna see if anybody else will stick up for him in any way, you know. I mean, it doesn't make it right what he did. Oh, thanks for that concession. But I don't know, Dan, I really don't know. I don't know. Well, listen to see what other people have to say. Hey, guess what you had the courage to at least leave me a voicemail. You disagree with me, and you disagree with the governor, that's fine, we should call Let's go next too. We're gonna go Rick and Bill, Rick or Rick you next one nights welcome.
00:32:01
Speaker 6: I want you Dan.
00:32:02
Speaker 2: I'm a little lefset right now. Rick, thank you for calling in.
00:32:06
Speaker 3: Well you've met it pretty queer that you are. So this is what I have to say. I am anti death penalty. However, I'm not anti keeping somebody in prison. You know, in this case he needs to stay. And if he finds God, fantastic, Yeah, because you know you want to do that before you die. Yeah, if he does great things. But yeah, So I am anti death penalty. I always, I have been for the longest time.
00:32:36
Speaker 2: My position, my position and the death penalty. Rick, And again there's I just want to say. It's so people understand I'm clear. I'm very limited on the death penalty. Uh. If there is a case, and there are cases where there is not a sentilla of doubt, the standard is conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. No, I want to make sure it's beyond a sentilla of doubt out and there's no question of who the person was. And then there are aggravating circumstances. I think about the case in Connecticut, which I've alluded to before. You probably familiar with it where these two bombs went into a house. They tied up a doctor, put him in the basement of the house. They raped his wife, raped his daughters, tied the daughters to a bed. They then took the wife. One of them took the wife to a bank to withdraw some money. Somehow, someway, she was able to make eye contact with a teller. The teller called police. By time they got back to the house, they were in the house. They had soaked the beds of the two young girls with gasoline. They lit the girls on fire. They died in the fire. The husband was able to somehow escape. They were caught fleeing the house. So no doubt about their crime, no doubt about their guilt, and certain aggravating circumstances. They are my poster child, my poster boys for the death penalty. And I respect your opinion.
00:34:08
Speaker 3: You I'm sure, I respect what you just said. I mean, I'm yeah, I mean, you know when you think about.
00:34:16
Speaker 2: That, well, that was the case. That's a specific case out of Connecticut. But again, but I have a standard, and that is there's not a scentilla of doubt. They were caught fleeing the house. They were identified by the wife. Identified by the husband, the two daughters burned to death in their beds. They were tied into their beds and soaked with gasoline. But I'm not trying to change your point of view on it. I just thank you for calling. And I don't think this guy who murdered a police officer in cold blood at the age of twenty, because he now is considered an emerging a doubt, whatever the hell an emerging adult is, deserves a second chance. He deserves to spend the rest of his life and die in prison as he was sentenced.
00:34:58
Speaker 3: Well that's true. And also, how about you know, I shouldn't bring up Matthew Curly. That's just the most disgusting. Fewer people die compared to the Connecticut murder, but Matthew Curly is another example absolutely of just despicableness. And it's not that they the sent tail of adult, that it was them before you send them to their death. But once you find that out and you know that they did it just because for the hell.
00:35:24
Speaker 2: Of it, oh well, well they still They stole his his bicycle, then they bought him a bicycle to to befriend him. They raped him, and they buried him in a barrel of cement and dumped the barrel into a river. And I think it was New Hampshire, Maine.
00:35:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was talking about the Connecticut one. But but yeah, I know about Matthew. Yeah, I know. It's just it's it's a lot to think about. That's you challenge my, my, my, my, my belief against the death penalty when we talk about this. It actually it challenges it, all.
00:35:55
Speaker 2: Right, No problem. I appreciate. I appreciate you call very much. You're a man of courage, and I thank you. Let me keep going here. I've got to get some more folks in. Okay, let me get compline real quickly. Jack is in Westford, Massachusetts. Jack, You're next on night side.
00:36:09
Speaker 6: Hey Dan, thanks. This whole thought process by any judge, jure or judicial person is sickening. How many how many seventeen year olds do you know? The older you get, you probably know fewer. How many of those seventeen year olds would be an armed robber? Maybe none? And then how many of those would be like capital criminals, probably even fewer than point percent. So the fact that someone would even devote any bit of their time to special conditions for someone such a minority. That they're even gonna consider word salad of merging adult is sickening. Dan, you got it, sickening.
00:36:52
Speaker 2: Totally, you totally got it. Look, Jack, I appreciate by the way, our last caller, Rick was referring to Jeffrey Curly who was murdered. Yes, you know, back in nineteen ninety seven I covered that murder Salvatory Sakari twenty one in Charles James twenty two. They were horrible, horrible human beings. If they were a year or two younger, they'd be eligible parole. Too. Unbelievable, Jack, thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Let me get Lisa and Addamborough. Lisa next, on nice side. We're running out of time, Lisa Garret ahead, thank you.
00:37:30
Speaker 8: For calling Hi, Dan, thanks for taking my call for me. The fact that we're even discussing this is ridiculous. This was a cold blood of murder.
00:37:40
Speaker 2: YEP.
00:37:41
Speaker 8: I understand people change, you know, I've changed in my life. I'm not the same person I was. But you literally shot someone.
00:37:49
Speaker 2: In cold blooded six times, six times, and.
00:37:54
Speaker 8: I can't give Maura Haley any kudos. I feel like she's doing this because people are watching.
00:38:00
Speaker 2: Oh you know what, look if look, if I'll disagree with you, Matt, and I appreciate your honesty. I really appreciate your call. You were one of the people who had the courage to call tonight, and I thank you for that as well. And I mean that seriously. But I when when someone's right, I don't care who it is. And I've been critical of her. If I if I wasn't supportive of her here, I'd be a hypocrite. And I'm not a hypocrite.
00:38:25
Speaker 8: Okay, okay, Uh can I just say one more thing about Lauren the illegal immigrant? And I'm I'm all for people coming to this country legally, but the fact that you are we're a sanctuary city, Maura Haley must have an extra bedroom. She must have an extra bedroom for the rapists and the and the killers. Just just give them some someplace to sleep. Mara. I mean, all right, that's how I feel about it.
00:38:54
Speaker 2: I understand the feeling. We'll disagree on on whether she should be commended for what she did in this letter. I think she should, thank you very much. Rob. How much time do we have left? Thirty seconds? Okay? The callers who are on the line please a minute thirty. Okay, Dolly. All of a sudden, he says, a minute thirty. I can give you about thirty seconds. Go right ahead.
00:39:16
Speaker 5: You called lake going anyway, Dan?
00:39:18
Speaker 4: With that my voicemail you were talking about, Yes it was, Yes it was.
00:39:21
Speaker 5: It takes courage, because.
00:39:23
Speaker 2: It takes takes more courage to call up and agree with everybody you know.
00:39:26
Speaker 3: Oh but that terrible case you talked about, Dan.
00:39:29
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I didn't know about that case about the girls burnt yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker 2: In their beds, tied up and soaked with castlete.
00:39:36
Speaker 4: I wonder if.
00:39:37
Speaker 2: The chess Hire, Connecticut. Chess Hire, Connecticut, it was where the case took place, Dottie, I'm flat out of time. I thank you as always for both the voicemail and the call. Thank you very much.
00:39:50
Speaker 4: Thanks, good bye, bye bye.
00:39:52
Speaker 2: All right, we're done for the night. I don't know if I'm going to do a night side Facebook post game. I'll figure that out in a couple of minutes. I'm back tomorrow night. I don't quit. I don't quit. Neither does Rob. We'll both be back tomorrow night. To the call is where the guts to call. Thank you to those who didn't call I'm ashamed of the lack of courage. All dogs, all cats, all pets go to heaven. That's why pal Charlie Rays, who passed fifteen years ago in February, That's why your pets are pasted. They loved you and you love them. I do believe you'll see them again. We'll see gain tomorrow night or nightside. Everyone, thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: It's Dany Boston's Radio.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to change topics here, and you know, I've been pretty critical of Governor Healy in the last few months on a number of matters, but I have to commend her tonight and I want to talk about what is going on at the parole board here in Massachusetts. Earlier this year, I believe it was earlier this year. I could be no, not earlier this year would have been last year. The Massachusetts State Supreme Court issued an opinion which, in my opinion, was issued I guess it was a year ago. In my opinion, was just dead wrong, dead wrong, and essentially said that in Massachusetts, the way it works is if you commit a murder, then you're you were convicted of murder in the first read, you are automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole. One of the arguments that the people that posted the death penalty made twenty years ago was, hey, look, you know the death penalty is the easy way out for these guys these murderers. Put them in a prison for the rest of their lives meant that will make them think about their victims every day for the rest of their lives. Well, The only murderer that I know who ever asked to go to the death chamber was a Timothy McVeigh, the guy that drove his truck into the Oklahoma Federal Office building and killed what it was, you know, one hundred and sixty people, including children, back in the mid nineteen nineties, and he ordered or he instructed his lawyers to drop all appeals because he wanted to get it over with. Most murderers when they are facing the death penalty, they use every possible appeal they can. So what happened was our state Supreme Court decided about a year ago that anyone who was under the age of twenty one had committed murder before. I forget the date on it. I think it was two thousand and four. I don't want to be incorrect on this, but I think that is the date that they could have their murder in the first degree decision sentence reviewed. Not that they would automatically be released from prison. But what has happened is that so far in the last year, the parole Board has issued fifty one decisions since the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that. And again the phrase they use emerging adults those who were eighteen to twenty years old at the time that they were they committed the murder for which they were convicted again murder in the first degree. Okay, they are the thirty nine the board has okayed, of the fifty one decisions, thirty nine convicted first degree murderers had been released here in Massachusetts. That's not a bad percentage rate, thirty nine out of fifty one. If you could get you know, if you could win thirty nine games and losing twelve games because they denied parole to twelve inmates, you read thirty nine and twelve, that's a pretty good record. When you think about that, say, as a pro football team for four years, about fifty games or whatever would it would be. Again, I don't mean to diminish it, but it's a seventy six percent release rate for this group. So now, one of the most heinous murders in the history of Massachusetts was the murder of Massachusetts Police Trooper George Hannah that occurred in Massachusetts on February twenty sixth, nineteen eighty three, in Auburn, Massachusetts, just south of Worcestern. There was a group that Trooper Hannah pulled over that night, and there were I believe three men and two women in a car, and he asked them to get out of the car. And when he did, one of them, a man named Jose Cologne, basically executed the trooper shot him six times from close range. There. It was a shocking crime. It was a shocking crime. And the name George Hannah has lived for many years in the spirit of the Hannah Awards, the Hannah Memorial Awards for bravery see the annual ceremony that is named in his honor that recognizes valor among law enforcement officers. This murder occurred forty three years ago. So this guy who was twenty at the time of the murder and I was sixty three.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: And.
00:05:16
Speaker 2: The Governor more Healy, who is you know? I never considered her to be, you know, particularly tough on crime, she said, given she wrote to the parole board, and I got to congratulate her for doing this. Given the extraordinary significance this case, this case holds for our state, I believe it is necessary to voice my clear and unequivocal opposition to Jose Cologne's release. Massachusetts rightly holds Truehannah's name as a symbol of honor and valor. Releasing the individual who fired the shots that killed Troopehanna would diminish the meaning of the very leg we continue to uphold and would send a dangerous signal that deliberate killing of a police officer is anything less than the most hamous, heinous of crimes. Now, again, the Parole Board doesn't look at this guy as a murderer. He looks at him as an emerging adult. He's sixty three years old, but since he committed the murder when he was twenty, he was a mere child. That was what the state Supreme Court ruled a year ago. I believe it was a four to three decision. And as I mentioned, the state Parole Board now has released thirty nine convicts people who were convicted of first degree murder. They were sentenced, they were sentenced to life in prison without parole. But here in Massachusetts we never ever ever punished people as we promise. We took away the death penalty, and now we are taking away life in prison without parole for people who kill under the age of twenty one. So if you want to kill someone, make sure you kill them before you turn twenty one. In Massachusetts, I mean that's pretty perverse to say that, but that is the reality. And don't think that there aren't young people, maybe just gang bangers whose lives are in greater danger now because the potential killers think to themselves, well, I can now off somebody and I'll get out eventually. You might take ten years, maybe take twenty years, but I'm an emerging adult. Heally went on to write, and they're quoting here from the Boston Herald article this morning. I'm not sure if this was in the Globe. I think it was, but I don't have the globe in front of me. I recognize that the board must evaluate parole matters within its legal mandate and established criteria. The Governor wrote, nothing in this letter is intended to lessen that duty or substitute my judgment for yours. Although she appoints the parole board. I write to state plainly that the nature of this offense, the magnitude of its harm, the welfare of this state, and the enduring public significance of Troop Ahanna's sacrifice weighed decisively against release. For these reasons, I strongly urged the board to deny parole for Jose Cologne. Now the Supreme court decision that basically set the situation here is Commonwealth versus Madis. So we have two hundred people who are in prison for murder without parole. We're not talking about pickpockets. We're not talking even about rapists. We're talking about murderers in the first degree Troopers. According to the governor, Troopers's family, including his wife, Marilyn and their three children, Deborah, Kimberly, and Michael, have lived with this unimaginable loss ever since. This offense inflicted profound and lasting harm. In a civil society, law enforcement officers, this is the governor's world. It's not mine, but I commender for them. In a civil society, law enforcement officers uphold the laws that allow our communities to live in peace and safety. The intentional killing of an officer in the line of duty is not only a brutal crime against one person. It is a violent assault on the rule of law and on the institutions the public depends on for safety and justice. Its impact is carried across generations by a grieving family and shouldered by a law enforcement community that will always remember and mourn it's fallen. The award, the Hinner Award reads it is an opportunity to publicly recognize the bravery of members of the law enforcement community who put their lives in the line by dedicating themselves to safety. Throughout Massachusetts, nearly two hundred people have received the Hanner Award, two hundred people involved in law enforcement. Heally writes, each year these awards remind all of us of the magnet of Troop Hannah's sacrifice, the pain suffered by his loved ones, and our obligation to honor his service. They also recognize that significant risks assumed by those who serve and the sacrifices made by families who support them. Troopa Hannah's family has continued to honor his legacy in a deeply tangible way, the Governor added. His daughters, Deborah and Kimberly, still present the awards in his name, keeping their father's memory central to the Commonwealth's recognition of courage and dedicational law enforcement. For the past ten years, the governor writes, she has personally sat with Deborah and Kimberly at the Hannah Awards ceremony and have witnessed the pain they continued to endure because of their father's brutal murder. Governor, thank you for that letter. I will continue to criticize Governor Healy when I think she is wrong, but on this point she is spot on. I would love to hear from you. I would again, this is not something you think about most of you, if you do not have family members who are out tonight protecting all of us in small departments, major cities, and on the roads of the comwalth of Massachusetts. But I would like to hear from all of you, and I mean that all of you and denounce this court decision four to three, which never should have been written, never should have been issued. And these inmates who took the lives of individuals with premeditation and deliberation and aggravating circumstances, and they were sentenced to life in prison without parole, that sentence should be completed. Life in prison without parole means exactly what it is. But here in Massachusetts it doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that for a so called emerging adults. I would like to hear some outrage. If I don't, I'll be sorely disappointed. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty let's go to the owns. Right after this very quick break.
00:12:03
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Boston's News Radio.
00:12:08
Speaker 2: Well, very rarely does my audience disappoint me, but you disappoint me right now. Is it that you can't say something nice about Governor Heally. Governor Healy did the right thing by writing this letter to the parole Board. I'm sure that there's a lot of people within her base who are not happy that she would oppose the parole for the killer of Massachusettstate Police Trooper George Hannah. This is an abomination. You know, last hour, it's funny we talked last hour about people leaving Massachusetts. Well, here's a good reason to leave Massachusetts. Okay, you can talk about the fact that homes are too expensive, there's an affordability issue, that taxes have just continued to go up, a lot of good reasons to consider leaving that Massachusetts. But here's thirty nine good reasons to leave Massachusetts. And the thirty nine good reasons to leave Massachusetts are the thirty nine convicted first degree murderers who have now been given parole by the state Parole Board because of this stupid, idiotic decision by the Massachusetts State Supreme Court, which somehow decided in their wisdom, their just extraordinary wisdom, that just because someone was under the age of twenty one when they decided to execute a police officer by shooting him at close range six times, that that person now is an emerging adult and they need to be welcomed back into society because they have somehow found Jesus in prison. Well, a lot of people find Jesus in prison. Some of them find him for all the right reasons. Others find him as an excuse. They'll find some phony Bologney minister or priest who goes in there and says, oh, this guy's turned his life around. Well, I don't want to gamble with thirty nine convicted first degree murderers walking the streets of Massachusetts. Well, then I assume being able to go to other states and kill other people. This is an insane decision. And I just want to again, I want to congratulate Governor Heally. She did the right thing here, and I had the guts and I have the courage to say. I might not agree with her on a lot of issues, but in this one, she stood up. She wrote a letter that she can be proud of that will stand the test of time. And this court all, well, the four of them that wrote the majority opinion or joined in the majority opinion, they should be ashamed of themselves for them to dishonor the memory of those individuals, not only State Police Trooper Hannah who was murdered by this creep forty three years ago, but life with life in prison without parole is what the legislature said was the sentence. That's the that's the sentence that should have been carried out for each and every one of these guys. They were convicted. If there's a problem with the conviction, appeal the conviction, I was very much involved with the Salvadi Liamoni case. Okay, I know how it works. Okay. Is the system perfect?
00:15:23
Speaker 4: No?
00:15:24
Speaker 2: Are there people who get convicted wrongfully unintentionally? Yeah, okay, and and we can deal with that. But on these most heinous crimes, there aren't too many people who are convicted wrongfully six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one ten thirty John and Rockport. John, you were first this hour at night side. I appreciate the fact that you would call and speak. I hope in favor of Governor Healey's letter and on in support of police and Massageusetts and innocent victims of people who commit first degree murder.
00:16:05
Speaker 5: Don't you even taking my car? I couldn't agree more with that letter. I can't believe this. I can't believe it. Thirty nine people walking the streets that have committed first degree murder? Yep, what's going on?
00:16:18
Speaker 2: Welcome to Massachusetts, John, Welcome to Massachusetts. I mean, you know, we talk about one issues here every night of the week, and this is an important issue. I think you know. I know that everybody's wrapped up in the Patriots game this weekend, which is fine, but this is more important to the quality of life in Massachusetts than whether the Patriots go to the super Bowl or win the super Bowl. This is a matter of life and death. Where where peap thirty nine first degree murderers. They've considered only twenty five percent of the cases. There's two hundred cases that are eventually going to go in front of the parole bo They have released thirty nine of the fifty two, which is a seventy six percent release rate.
00:17:07
Speaker 5: There's one hundred possibility. There's a possibility they'll do it again.
00:17:11
Speaker 2: Well, absolutely, there's a possibility. But what is even more frightening is that our state Supreme Court when they they they considered fifty cases, they released three quarters of them. They have another one hundred and fifty. I suspect that they'll release three quarters of those cases as well. Oh my, so we're going to have more than thirty nine. I mean, and if they do release this Jose Cologne who murdered you know, Troopehanna, who had the audacity to pull the car over on that nine in nineteen eighty three in Arburn, Massachusetts, and he basically they executed this police.
00:17:51
Speaker 5: Officer shot him six times.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, six times? Yes, absolutely absolutely.
00:17:59
Speaker 5: I feel so if I can right, please tell the hand of family. I'm so sorry, and I'm praying to God that you know what I mean, they can get through this. They probably they can't. They lost their father.
00:18:12
Speaker 2: Well, they've gone through this so many times now with parole hearings, and now they have a parole hearing that there's so many families that you know, in a murder case where someone gets parole, you can parole eligible second degree murder fifteen years in Massachusetts. They took away the death penalty about twenty five years ago, and now they are taking away first degree murder for anyone under the age of twenty one. So if you get into a beef with someone under the age of twenty one and they think they're gonna kill you, just give them your money, give them the car, whatever you want, because they're gonna be smart enough to know they are never gonna go away for life without parole.
00:18:52
Speaker 5: They are gonna happen in the role the courts say they're emerging adult.
00:18:57
Speaker 2: That's the phrase they're using. What are you commis? What a euphemism? An emerging adult? John, thank you so much for your support. I appreciate it. I hope they hear her family's listening. Okay, thanks John, Okay, thank you, Dan. Good night boy. I'll tell you six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty Why people are not jumping at their phones on this one I don't understand. But guess what. This is the state you live in, This is where and I don't know if people are not smart enough to understand this. I can't believe that we have the news at the bottom of the eyre will take a news break h this is an opportunity for you to say thank you to the governor. I don't care if you disagree with every position she's ever taken. Why would you not commend her for this? This was an incredibly well written and well reasoned letter. And as I say, I am not her biggest supporter, but when she's right, she needs to have our support and without you know, we can go open lines of this boys six one seven, six one, seven thirty coming right back on night Side.
00:20:08
Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on wb Boston's news radio.
00:20:14
Speaker 2: I'm confused here. I'm totally confused by the fact that these lines are not red hot because this is an abomination. What is being done not only to the hand of family, the fact that even the hand of family has to sit has to sit at another parole hearing for this piece of garbage. UH is beyond me. Uh. And why we here in Massachusetts will sit back even when we have a governor who on this issue is done the has done the right thing and has spoken. I'm sure there are people in her base, you know, who disagree with this, but she's done the right thing. Let me go to Eileen and Cambridge. Eileen, I appreciate your calling in your thoughts on this one.
00:20:59
Speaker 4: I lean, well, I just felt it was absolutely necessary to call in on this. You asked us to call in, and and I I am really terrified to drive through certain areas of Boston because I don't want to come up against somebody with a gun. Yeah, And it's scary out there, and.
00:21:36
Speaker 2: It is very Look, look, this does not this does not augur. Well. Uh. And I don't think you have a thing to worry about, Eileen. And I mean that when I say that to you. Honestly, I think that what this court decision has done, in my opinion, besides giving first degree murderers, some two hundred first degree murderers or so called emerging adults a chance to rejoin society, okay. Uh. And I don't care if if I am not a bleeding heart. Uh And on this issue, I don't think mar Heally is a bleeding heart. I'll tell you who should be concerned. Anybody who's young, uh and and finds themselves out on the streets, you know, dealing in these sort of country. Read about it all the time. You know that that two people were shot and one people died. Uh in a in a in a in a in an incident that might have been involved in some sort of a gang shootout.
00:22:41
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:22:42
Speaker 2: These these kids, when they when they realized that that murderers, first degree murderers are going back on the street, their attitude is going to be I'll do whatever I want. There was a police officer, corrections officer who told me many years ago. He said, the reason that most there were so many kids who were involved in gangs and drug activities and gun activities, He said, they don't think they're going to live past twenty. So therefore they don't feel they have anything to lose if they shoot and kill someone, because you know, their lifespan is not what your lifespan is, or mine, or the average lifespan. The average it's twenty. And here we have the Governor of the Commonwealth who's no bleeding heart, who has taking a really strong stand. And I would hope that, but I'm not satisfied that my audience would would say, Hey, whether you agree with Governor Heally on other issues or not, she did the right thing here and she's fighting this and she's told the prole board this guy should not get out. He executed a police officer he executed a police officer. He should not.
00:23:54
Speaker 4: She did the right thing, and you did the right thing by bringing it up on the radio. That's shocking to hear that there are people, young people who don't believe they'll live past the age of twenty.
00:24:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. No. I have a friend of mine, a dear friend who's a probation officer, who twenty years ago, he told me that. He said, Dan, I said, how come these kids are going out joining gangs, getting involved in shootouts. I mean, it's not happening in Wellesley and Weston, as you know, It's happening often, most often in the inner city. And I think that there's a lot of people who don't care. I care about these kids' lives. If you're fifteen, sixteen, eighteen years old and you're growing up in Wellesley and parents and Weston with two parents in your family, you know, you probably are guided. You're probably going to do some dumb things. But the dumbest thing you might do is start smoking marijuana. You know, are having a b uh, but you're not out with a gang bank as a gang banger. And I don't think a lot of people care. I think they look at those people, those those young people in places like Roxby, Dorchester, Mattapan as collateral damage, and you know they don't particularly care. And I think I do, and I know you do, and I think these.
00:25:21
Speaker 5: Are the people who.
00:25:22
Speaker 2: I'm worried about.
00:25:22
Speaker 4: You know, so right, And I don't want to drive through those areas of Boston. And if Trump is going to send troops in to keep order, that there's a good place to start, I would.
00:25:37
Speaker 2: Think, well, there's a lot of good places to start, that's for sure. I lean. I thank you so much for calling in tonight. You've restored my faith a little bit in my audience. But there's a lot of voices that I would have expected would have popped these lines and as quickly, a lot quicker than that. Thank you, Eileen. Will talk soon. Okay, thanks so much happening.
00:25:55
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you for bringing this up.
00:25:57
Speaker 2: Okay, thank thanks, thanks for joining us. Thanks. Let me go next to We're gonna go to John in New York. Hey, John, I know that you're in another state, but if it can happen in Massachusetts, believe me, it can happen in New York as well.
00:26:13
Speaker 6: Yes, uh, Dan, good evening.
00:26:15
Speaker 7: I'm really in shock here in this. I just turned the radio along. I can't believe what I'm hearing. These people in the court, each psychiatric help many.
00:26:25
Speaker 2: They are they are detached from reality. Okay, you know all of them are political. Point and by and by the way, let me very be very clear. Many of the people on this in this decision in the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. I'm not gonna be arguing any cases in front of the State Supreme Court anytime soon. But many of these individuals were appointed by Republican by by Charlie Baker. Some were appointed by Governor Heally. But but this is not like a bunch of seven h you know, we have a seven member Supreme Court. It's not as if you have seven crazy rest of Democrats. Some of these are Republicans. And they decided that if you've killed somebody murder in the first degree, and you're under the age of twenty one, even though you were sentenced to life in prison without parole, you have a right, you have a right to get a parole hearing now. And the Parole Board has released thirty nine out of fifty two first degree murderers, and they still have another one hundred and fifty to deal with that's a seven hundred and sixty. Well, that's a seventy six percent rate in baseball terms, that's a batting average of seven sixty.
00:27:35
Speaker 7: Crazy, you know, Dan, if it's really true, if your first degree murder, that's proven that it's the total truth. Yeah, you should be sitting in an electric chair, and they should tell avise it so people see what's going to happen to you when you misbehave yourself like that.
00:27:52
Speaker 2: Well, we get rid of the death penalty in Massachusetts. You don't have the death penalty in New York. And one of the arguments was, oh, make the stay in prison for the rest of their lives because the death penalty is the easy way out. Well, the only murderer that I know that ever said give me the chair was Timothy McVeigh. Everybody else fights it tooth and nail. And now first degree murderers are being released at a rate of seventy six percent in Massachusetts. What is it about that number that my audience doesn't understand.
00:28:26
Speaker 7: Because Donald Trump had the power by executive more to stop.
00:28:30
Speaker 2: No, sir, no, sir no, that's that's a ruling from the Massachusetts State Supreme Court.
00:28:38
Speaker 7: But he is the power to pardon people in prison?
00:28:41
Speaker 2: We can well, no, he is. He has the right to pardon people in federal prison. He doesn't have the right to pardon people who are convicted in the states, in the courts of Massachusetts or the courts of New York. Okay, Nor does he have a chance to come in as as emperor and override the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. That's the problem. That's the problem, Jokay, joy Man, I thank you for joining us.
00:29:11
Speaker 7: Listen, not gonna go quick. I know you have other people, but the thing is you're in the position. You have the power that brought gestation. If you want to, you can pursue getting all the audience to rebel against this. You have the power, work on it.
00:29:24
Speaker 2: Well, I have. I have the power, John, But the only power I have is when people decide to join the conversation, and if they don't have enough guts to call in on this issue, I'm I'm just stunned, to be honest with you, I thought that the phone lines, the phone lines are starting to fill up, But I figured the phone lines would have been filled when we began to talk about this. This was a high profile murder in Massachusetts of a state police who was executed. He was more than murdered, he was executed. And I hate to say that, but that's the truth. But John, I appreciate it. I appreciate Dan. All right, thank you very much. John. I will fight as long and as hard as I can. It's as simple as that. But when people are sitting on their hands at.
00:30:08
Speaker 7: Home tonight, yeah, Dan, don't just just things fight tonight being up some other knights. Maybe the people just aren't listening and it's just a coincidental thing.
00:30:17
Speaker 2: There's plenty of people listening. We have a good idea, John, how many people listening. But a lot of people don't have the guts or the backbone to call and uh and raise their voice because they're afraid that that some neighbor, some friend of theirs might disagree with them, and they might they might hear them. Oh my god. If I say, you know, you have some courage. You don't care if someone recognizes your voice and says, hey, John, I heards you in the radio the other night. So anyway, John, thank you much. John, appreciate Thank you, my friend. The only line that's open is two right here, six one, seven, nine three ten thirty. If you have the guts to call in, great, if you don't want to stay cowering, coming back on my side.
00:30:56
Speaker 1: You're on night side with Dan Ray. I'm Austin's News Radio.
00:31:01
Speaker 2: I look at the transcript of someone who called the station, and I give her courage. She said, oh, she said, Uh, Dan, I think in this case I might disagree with you and with Mara Heally. I mean, you know, it's not like you know, he's being let out in his thirties. He's in his sixties, and he has, you know, been in prison all these years. You know, he hasn't Maybe you don't think that was punishment was enough. I know, I don't know. Well, anyway, I'm gonna see if anybody else will stick up for him in any way, you know. I mean, it doesn't make it right what he did. Oh, thanks for that concession. But I don't know, Dan, I really don't know. I don't know. Well, listen to see what other people have to say. Hey, guess what you had the courage to at least leave me a voicemail. You disagree with me, and you disagree with the governor, that's fine, we should call Let's go next too. We're gonna go Rick and Bill, Rick or Rick you next one nights welcome.
00:32:01
Speaker 6: I want you Dan.
00:32:02
Speaker 2: I'm a little lefset right now. Rick, thank you for calling in.
00:32:06
Speaker 3: Well you've met it pretty queer that you are. So this is what I have to say. I am anti death penalty. However, I'm not anti keeping somebody in prison. You know, in this case he needs to stay. And if he finds God, fantastic, Yeah, because you know you want to do that before you die. Yeah, if he does great things. But yeah, So I am anti death penalty. I always, I have been for the longest time.
00:32:36
Speaker 2: My position, my position and the death penalty. Rick, And again there's I just want to say. It's so people understand I'm clear. I'm very limited on the death penalty. Uh. If there is a case, and there are cases where there is not a sentilla of doubt, the standard is conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. No, I want to make sure it's beyond a sentilla of doubt out and there's no question of who the person was. And then there are aggravating circumstances. I think about the case in Connecticut, which I've alluded to before. You probably familiar with it where these two bombs went into a house. They tied up a doctor, put him in the basement of the house. They raped his wife, raped his daughters, tied the daughters to a bed. They then took the wife. One of them took the wife to a bank to withdraw some money. Somehow, someway, she was able to make eye contact with a teller. The teller called police. By time they got back to the house, they were in the house. They had soaked the beds of the two young girls with gasoline. They lit the girls on fire. They died in the fire. The husband was able to somehow escape. They were caught fleeing the house. So no doubt about their crime, no doubt about their guilt, and certain aggravating circumstances. They are my poster child, my poster boys for the death penalty. And I respect your opinion.
00:34:08
Speaker 3: You I'm sure, I respect what you just said. I mean, I'm yeah, I mean, you know when you think about.
00:34:16
Speaker 2: That, well, that was the case. That's a specific case out of Connecticut. But again, but I have a standard, and that is there's not a scentilla of doubt. They were caught fleeing the house. They were identified by the wife. Identified by the husband, the two daughters burned to death in their beds. They were tied into their beds and soaked with gasoline. But I'm not trying to change your point of view on it. I just thank you for calling. And I don't think this guy who murdered a police officer in cold blood at the age of twenty, because he now is considered an emerging a doubt, whatever the hell an emerging adult is, deserves a second chance. He deserves to spend the rest of his life and die in prison as he was sentenced.
00:34:58
Speaker 3: Well that's true. And also, how about you know, I shouldn't bring up Matthew Curly. That's just the most disgusting. Fewer people die compared to the Connecticut murder, but Matthew Curly is another example absolutely of just despicableness. And it's not that they the sent tail of adult, that it was them before you send them to their death. But once you find that out and you know that they did it just because for the hell.
00:35:24
Speaker 2: Of it, oh well, well they still They stole his his bicycle, then they bought him a bicycle to to befriend him. They raped him, and they buried him in a barrel of cement and dumped the barrel into a river. And I think it was New Hampshire, Maine.
00:35:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was talking about the Connecticut one. But but yeah, I know about Matthew. Yeah, I know. It's just it's it's a lot to think about. That's you challenge my, my, my, my, my belief against the death penalty when we talk about this. It actually it challenges it, all.
00:35:55
Speaker 2: Right, No problem. I appreciate. I appreciate you call very much. You're a man of courage, and I thank you. Let me keep going here. I've got to get some more folks in. Okay, let me get compline real quickly. Jack is in Westford, Massachusetts. Jack, You're next on night side.
00:36:09
Speaker 6: Hey Dan, thanks. This whole thought process by any judge, jure or judicial person is sickening. How many how many seventeen year olds do you know? The older you get, you probably know fewer. How many of those seventeen year olds would be an armed robber? Maybe none? And then how many of those would be like capital criminals, probably even fewer than point percent. So the fact that someone would even devote any bit of their time to special conditions for someone such a minority. That they're even gonna consider word salad of merging adult is sickening. Dan, you got it, sickening.
00:36:52
Speaker 2: Totally, you totally got it. Look, Jack, I appreciate by the way, our last caller, Rick was referring to Jeffrey Curly who was murdered. Yes, you know, back in nineteen ninety seven I covered that murder Salvatory Sakari twenty one in Charles James twenty two. They were horrible, horrible human beings. If they were a year or two younger, they'd be eligible parole. Too. Unbelievable, Jack, thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Let me get Lisa and Addamborough. Lisa next, on nice side. We're running out of time, Lisa Garret ahead, thank you.
00:37:30
Speaker 8: For calling Hi, Dan, thanks for taking my call for me. The fact that we're even discussing this is ridiculous. This was a cold blood of murder.
00:37:40
Speaker 2: YEP.
00:37:41
Speaker 8: I understand people change, you know, I've changed in my life. I'm not the same person I was. But you literally shot someone.
00:37:49
Speaker 2: In cold blooded six times, six times, and.
00:37:54
Speaker 8: I can't give Maura Haley any kudos. I feel like she's doing this because people are watching.
00:38:00
Speaker 2: Oh you know what, look if look, if I'll disagree with you, Matt, and I appreciate your honesty. I really appreciate your call. You were one of the people who had the courage to call tonight, and I thank you for that as well. And I mean that seriously. But I when when someone's right, I don't care who it is. And I've been critical of her. If I if I wasn't supportive of her here, I'd be a hypocrite. And I'm not a hypocrite.
00:38:25
Speaker 8: Okay, okay, Uh can I just say one more thing about Lauren the illegal immigrant? And I'm I'm all for people coming to this country legally, but the fact that you are we're a sanctuary city, Maura Haley must have an extra bedroom. She must have an extra bedroom for the rapists and the and the killers. Just just give them some someplace to sleep. Mara. I mean, all right, that's how I feel about it.
00:38:54
Speaker 2: I understand the feeling. We'll disagree on on whether she should be commended for what she did in this letter. I think she should, thank you very much. Rob. How much time do we have left? Thirty seconds? Okay? The callers who are on the line please a minute thirty. Okay, Dolly. All of a sudden, he says, a minute thirty. I can give you about thirty seconds. Go right ahead.
00:39:16
Speaker 5: You called lake going anyway, Dan?
00:39:18
Speaker 4: With that my voicemail you were talking about, Yes it was, Yes it was.
00:39:21
Speaker 5: It takes courage, because.
00:39:23
Speaker 2: It takes takes more courage to call up and agree with everybody you know.
00:39:26
Speaker 3: Oh but that terrible case you talked about, Dan.
00:39:29
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I didn't know about that case about the girls burnt yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker 2: In their beds, tied up and soaked with castlete.
00:39:36
Speaker 4: I wonder if.
00:39:37
Speaker 2: The chess Hire, Connecticut. Chess Hire, Connecticut, it was where the case took place, Dottie, I'm flat out of time. I thank you as always for both the voicemail and the call. Thank you very much.
00:39:50
Speaker 4: Thanks, good bye, bye bye.
00:39:52
Speaker 2: All right, we're done for the night. I don't know if I'm going to do a night side Facebook post game. I'll figure that out in a couple of minutes. I'm back tomorrow night. I don't quit. I don't quit. Neither does Rob. We'll both be back tomorrow night. To the call is where the guts to call. Thank you to those who didn't call I'm ashamed of the lack of courage. All dogs, all cats, all pets go to heaven. That's why pal Charlie Rays, who passed fifteen years ago in February, That's why your pets are pasted. They loved you and you love them. I do believe you'll see them again. We'll see gain tomorrow night or nightside. Everyone, thanks for listening.
