Friday, Judge Charlie Graddick, director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, will hold a news conference on Monday to discuss resumption of parole hearings Tuesday and his opposition to the release of violent criminals.
The news conference will be held in Montgomery.
Judge Graddick was appointed Director by Gov. Kay Ivey on September 1 to reform and improve the Bureau. To implement reforms passed by the legislature in the 2019 regular session, Graddick has has postponed parole hearings for September and October. Graddick said that that was necessary because the previous administration failed to meet compliance standards set by the new law regarding notifications for victims and other interested parties of scheduled parole hearings.
The Board of Pardons and Paroles will resume holding hearings on Tuesday.
Graddick has announced that the Board will hold hearings from Tuesday through Thursday each week from Nov. 5 to Nov. 20 and Dec. 3 to 18. They will restart following January holidays. The names of the inmates being considered for parole and the hearing dates are posted on the Bureau’s website.
Graddick is the former Presiding Judge in Mobile County. He is a former Attorney General. In 1986 he won the Democratic nomination for Governor after a bitter campaign, besting Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley. A court ruled that Republicans illegally crossed over and voted in the Democratic primary runoff. The results were overturned and Baxley put in his place. Cullman County Probate Judge Guy Hunt (R) then defeated Baxley in the general election, the first Republican win of an Alabama gubernatorial race in over a hundred years. Republicans are 7 and 1 in the gubernatorial elections that have since followed.
Gov. Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) asked the legislature to pass legislation reforming the Pardons and Paroles Board after a number of highly controversial early releases, some which resulted in Alabama citizens being killed by recent parolees.
To read the schedule:
https://paroles.alabama.gov/hearing-information/scheduled-parole-hearings/
