Parole Improbable

The article on Thomas Hayhurst’s guilty plea to second-degree murder (“Son Pleads Guilty to Killing Mother,” Nov. 29) is wrong in stating that he will be eligible for parole in seven years. The only people eligible for parole in seven years are those sentenced to “straight life”--a life term where the sentence itself specifies no minimum number of years.

Although once common, “straight life” now applies to very few crimes. The sentence for second-degree murder, as you correctly report, is 15 years to life in prison. Someone serving 15 years to life must serve a minimum of 10 years in prison before they are eligible for parole.

Even stating that the minimum time which must be served is 10 years can be misleading.

Under the guidelines used by the parole board, virtually no one convicted of second-degree murder is paroled in that short a time. So, while Thomas Hayhurst may possibly be paroled after 10 years, it is extremely unlikely. The earliest parole dates are generally given to people who did not even personally cause a killing, but were involved in it enough to make them legally responsible. Hayhurst personally killed his mother, according to your reports, so the parole board’s guidelines will require him to serve longer than the minimum.

California’s sentences are among the longest in the world, not only in the nominal time to which people are sentenced, but also in the actual time they serve in prison. Because errors in your reports about how long people convicted of murder must actually serve can give your readers the wrong impression about how long the sentences in this state really are, I hope you find a way to correct the error in the Hayhurst article and to avoid similar errors in future articles about murder sentences.

PAUL BELL

San Diego