Alan Jones Denied Parole

This morning (June 30, Oswego County District Attorney Gregory Oakes spoke with an official at the Wallkill Correctional Facility, who advised that the NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has DENIED the parole application for Alan Jones.

Jones is presently serving an indeterminate sentence of 5 to 15 years based upon his conviction for Manslaughter in the Second Degree relating to the August 2008 death of his 11-year old step-sister, Erin Maxwell, in the town of Palermo (Oswego County).

In response to the decision, District Attorney Oakes stated, “I am thankful to everyone who wrote the parole board and joined me in opposing Jones’s release. I am relieved that the parole board listened to our voices, and I’m grateful that justice continues to be served.”

According to District Attorney Oakes, the official at Wallkill Correctional Facility stated that Jones may be eligible for release as soon as October 6, 2018, which is his conditional release date. Under DOCCS regulations, the conditional release date is determined by an inmate’s “good time credit.”

Essentially, if there is no misconduct or behavioral issues, the inmate is automatically entitled to release before the maximum sentence. In this case, if Jones is released in October of 2018, he will have served 10 years on his 5 to 15 year sentence.

In September of 2009, an Oswego County Jury convicted Jones of Murder in the Second Degree. It was alleged that Jones, under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, recklessly caused the death of Maxwell. Prosecutors maintained that he placed a nylon rope around the young girl’s neck and tightened it for up to five minutes, causing injuries that ultimately led to Maxwell’s death.

In November of 2009, he was sentenced to 25 years to Life, which was the maximum sentence for Murder in the Second Degree.

Three years later, in November of 2012, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, reversed the murder conviction and found that the trial evidence did not establish that that Jones acted with depraved indifference to human life as a matter of law.

To be clear, the appellate court did not dispute or discredit the factual allegations set forth by the prosecution. Although the appellate court implicitly affirmed the jury’s finding that Jones strangled Maxwell, it held that Jones did not act with depraved indifference to life because he made a 911 call regarding the victim’s asphyxiation, administered CPR, and was present on the scene when EMTs arrived.

District Attorney Oakes stated that the appellate court was constrained by prior rulings of the NYS Court of Appeals. Oakes explained that prior to 2006, the law applied an objective standard that simply required prosecutors to demonstrate that a defendant’s conduct was depraved when measured against that of a reasonable person. In 2006, rather than relying upon past precedent and simply applying the law as written, the Court of Appeals modified the standard.

Through a series of cases, the Court of Appeals rejected the “reasonable person” standard and imposed subjective standard that requires prosecutors to show the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the offense. No matter how heinous, wicked, or immoral the conduct, prosecutors cannot charge depraved indifference murder unless they can show that the defendant did not care whether the victim lived or died.

Under this standard, if a defendant takes any action to assist the victim after the fact, he cannot be convicted of depraved indifference murder.

District Attorney Oakes argued the Jones case on appeal, and he is critical of the Court of Appeals decisions regarding depraved indifference.

Oakes explained that the Penal Law specifically sets forth four culpable mental states, which does not include depraved indifference.

“We are in this position because the Court of Appeals started legislating from the bench. They disregarded the plain language of the law and simply created a standard that the legislature did not intend and never adopted,” Oakes added.

District Attorney Oakes said that the state legislature needs to act in order to return the depraved indifference law back to the objective standard, applying a common sense definition so that prosecutors can obtain justice for child victims.

“Unfortunately, there will be more victims like Erin Maxwell. Until the legislature amends the law, prosecutors will not be able to obtain true justice for those victims,” he said. missing or outdated ad config

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