Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Law and Order Bredesen Answers Questions on Gaile Owens
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 11:20 AM
Bredesen: The thousand days credit would move her to late spring of 2012. And there’s a possibility of moving that still forward a small amount. I’d emphasize this is not release. This is eligibility to go before the parole board and make your case. Obviously in many cases, they say it’s not time yet. But it treats her as she would have been treated in that regard had that plea bargain been able to come into effect in 1986. She has lost the opportunity for a great deal of the sentence credits she might have earned. But we’re trying to adjust for that a little bit.
Q: Did you speak with her?
Bredesen: No. I don’t need to tell you that there was a lot of activity about this particular case. As I have with the others, I spoke with her attorney as a courtesy as I have with several of the others, but I have not met with anyone else regarding the case and have I guess I would say stiff-armed a number of people and just said I just don’t think it’s appropriate. This is not going to be decided based on who’s for it or who’s against it or political pressure or anything else. So I’ve not met with anyone on the case, including her.
Q: Why was now the time?
Bredesen: I think it’s just a matter of I’ve looked at it. It’s been a year since she asked for it. The execution is scheduled in September. I’m not interested in having this woman go through waiting for that to happen until it got close. I’ve been reasonably occupied until much of this spring. We really I think kind of in late June were able to get settled down and start looking at this thing really hard. This is the conclusion that I came to.
Q: Do you know if she knows yet?
Bredesen: I called Mr. Barrett at 10 o’clock and told him what I had I done and what I was going to say. And I presume, well, he told me he would attempt to notify her. Whether that has happened in the past half an hour, I don’t know the answer to that question. But she certainly is entitled to be notified by her lawyer and not by watching television.
