Anthony Marshall attempts to get out of jail
Anthony Marshall is a man who plainly refuses to give up. Finally jailed in June this year following his 2009 conviction for stealing tens of millions from his famous heiress mother, Marshall has put in a cynically planned bid to get out of jail on the basis of being too sick to serve his sentence.
Lawyers for the 89-year old, who has served just two months of his one to three year term, claim that he is unable to walk or feed himself and thus should be released by the New York State Parole Board. If his request is approved he would be released within weeks. If he fails in his bid, the earliest date he will be allowed out is June 2014.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Loewy, a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, however, views Marshall’s request to be inappropriate. In a letter, sent on the 14th August to the Department of Correction, she states:
“Marshall was well enough to attend a black-tie gala at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in Manhattan”.
“Marshall’s ability to socialize to this extent, at about the same time defense counsel and Dr. Franklin were describing his condition in such dire terms, is certainly relevant to the determination whether releasing him at the outset of his prison term would undermine the public’s respect for the law”.
“If the Parole Board were to make an exception for an elderly inmate like Marshall, the message to healthy elders who are tempted to commit financial abuse against family members could well be that the benefits of the crime outweigh the risk of punishment”.
Since New York’s compassionate release law came into effect in 1992, 398 inmates have been granted medical parole. Marshall may well be come the 399th and if that is indeed what happens, many will join with us in saying: “Shame on the New York State Parole Board”.
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