Parole board

• The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) and the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) responded today to the results and recommendations of a National Joint Board of Investigation (BOI) into the case of Myles Sanderson, who was a first-time federal offender on statutory release.
• This included the case preparation leading to the statutory release and community supervision as well as the PBC decisions related to Myles Sanderson.
• This National Joint BOI process was guided by requirements set out in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
• The offender, Myles Sanderson, was released in the community on statutory release in August 2021 under CSC's supervision.

• The recent decision by the Parole Board of Canada to grant Roger Bilodeau unescorted temporary absences, despite the ongoing appeals and over the objections of the victims' families, has understandably deepened the wounds of a community still in mourning.
• "The decision to grant unescorted absences to Roger Bilodeau, a man convicted of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of Jacob Sansom and Maurice Cardinal, two respected Métis hunters, is a complete disregard for the gravity of the loss suffered by their loved ones and our community," said the President of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government, Andrea Sandmaier.
• The Otipemisiwak Métis Government urges the justice system to place a greater emphasis on the voices and experiences of victims' families.
• President Sandmaier added, "the Otipemisiwak Métis Government stands in solidarity with the victims' families.

• When the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board decided not to recommend clemency for death row inmate Richard Glossip, the case highlighted the role clemency plays in the death penalty system.
• Glossip had asked the board to commute the sentence he had been given for his role in an alleged murder-for-hire plot.
• He was convicted of paying his co-defendant, Justin Sneed, to kill Barry Van Treese in 1997.
• The board, which met April 26, 2023, was split 2-2 over recommending that Glossip’s sentence be changed to life in prison.

The role of the attorney general

• In Oklahoma, family members of the victim are also given time to make their views known.
• In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court gave its approval to that kind of procedure when it held that clemency hearings must afford due process to the participants.
• “I’m not aware of any time in our history that an attorney general has appeared before this board and argued for clemency.

Clemency as grace – or justice

• In United States v. Wilson, a decision from 1833 and the first case about clemency to be decided by the United States Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall made that distinction clear.
• Instead of equating clemency and justice, he called clemency an “act of grace, proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws.” Clemency, Marshall continued, “exempts the individual on whom it is bestowed from the punishment the law inflicts for a crime he has committed.
• It is … delivered to the individual for whose benefit it is intended, and not communicated officially to the court.” A little more than 20 years after Marshall wrote that, another Supreme Court justice, James Wayne, reinforced this separation of clemency and justice.
• Clemency hearings are now generally just another arena to which inmates like Richard Glossip can appeal for justice.

Clemency is rare in capital cases

• But, from the perspective of clemency’s recent record in capital cases, the result should not have been surprising.
• As my research has shown, a century ago clemency was granted in about 25% of capital cases.
• In the same period, more than 1,500 cases have proceeded to execution.” While the center does not indicate how often clemency was sought in those cases, requesting clemency is often a standard part of the efforts death penalty defense lawyers make to try to save their clients.
• It is hard to get clemency in capital cases because, as the center explains, “Governors are subject to political influence, and even granting a single clemency can result in harsh attacks.” As a result, “clemencies in death penalty cases have been unpredictable and immune from review.” And what is true nationwide is also true in Oklahoma where during the past half-century there have been only five grants of clemency in capital cases.

• Sir David is also a former Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey & Guernsey and former Chairman of the Parole Board of England & Wales.
• He was recently appointed by the UK Attorney General to conduct an independent review of the Serious Fraud Office's conduct of the Unaoil case.
• Chief Executive of RiskScreen, Stephen Platt said, "It's a testament to the island's expertise and commitment to preventing financial crime that we've been able to establish and grow our business in Jersey.
• Being able to attract directors of Sir David's calibre will help us further evolve into one of the world's foremost digital businesses in the anti-money laundering space.