North Carolina’s sentencing laws became significantly stricter in 1994. Before then, people convicted of serious crimes such as murder could lower their sentences with good behavior. Life sentences could last no longer than 80 years, and then some prison sentences were reduced by 50 percent.
All this bears on the sentence for a man who was convicted of killing two people in 1975. While North Carolina claims that the man’s sentence should reach into 2055, the man argues that he should have been let out of prison in 2009. For his alleged unjust imprisonment for the last four years, he is asking the state for compensation of $200,000 — $50,000 per year, according to state law.
Please read more about the man’s struggle and his reasoning, and why the appeals court agrees with him, by following the link below.
Source: The Fayetteville Observer, “N.C. Court of Appeals rules that convicted murderer Bobby E. Bowden should be freed,” Paul Woolverton, Aug. 21, 2013