poor decisions like this from parole boards keep people screaming for the death penalty

Man who had wife killed in Va. Beach in '88 to be freed



VIRGINIA BEACH
A former Navy lieutenant commander convicted in a murder-for-hire plot targeting his wife is set to be free this summer after serving 16 years of a 30-year sentence.
Michael Fricke is scheduled to be released from the Department of Defense's only maximum-security prison, at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He was convicted in the slaying of his 31-year-old wife, Roxanne Fricke, in a Kempsville Road grocery store parking lot in 1988.
After 10 days of trial in a military court at Norfolk Naval Station in 1994, Michael Fricke pleaded guilty to premeditated murder, avoiding a potential guilty verdict and execution.
Fricke was expected to serve 25 to 30 years, but under the military's parole system, he was eligible for parole in 10 years.
"Sixteen years for premeditated murder-for-hire when he was looking at the death sentence," said Roxanne Fricke's mother, Elizabeth Wade, in a phone interview earlier this week.
Wade said a Fort Leavenworth representative told her that Fricke got credit for good behavior and a work program he participated in.
"He's getting out because he was a good boy in prison," said Beverly Suain, one of Roxanne Fricke's sisters.
The case generated a lot of news coverage and took many turns. Roxanne Fricke was shot twice in the head on May 13, 1988. She and Michael Fricke, who had been high school sweethearts, had an infant son at the time.
Police arrested a man named Angelo Rivera in 1993 and accused him of shooting Roxanne Fricke for money.
Michael Fricke and another man, Gilroy Lamar Brunson, who claimed to be the middleman, were later arrested. Brunson got immunity for testifying against Michael Fricke.
Prosecutors dropped the capital murder charge against Rivera later in 1993. In 2000, he was charged again with capital murder in the case.
Prosecutors then dropped the charge against Rivera in 2003 because of destroyed evidence and inmates who changed their minds about testifying.
Suain said family members went to the parole board in Washington, D.C., each year to argue against Fricke's release.
Michael Fricke is set to be released to Edgewater, Fla., about an hour and a half from where Roxanne met and married him, and where her mother and her family still live, her mother said.
The Fort Leavenworth spokeswoman said the Army prohibits interviews with prisoners.
Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/07/man-who-had-wife-killed-va-beach-88-be-freed

Personally I think that all three participants [husband that hired the killer, the middleman, and the acutal killer] should be serving real life sentences. Sadly that was not the case and as such people will use cases like this to argue for capital punishment becuase they equate just going to prison for a while with getting away with a crime.

He was good well in prison?

Not that hard. Stay out of fights and do your job and they consider you a good boy.

I mean, what else is there to do but behave.I wonder if he “found God” while in prison too.

Yes it hurts society in many ways - mostly it damages the credibility of our justice system. Like BobsKat said - prison is to get you to "act right". That's like my boss letting me off for years with pay simply because I do my job minimally. Nobody can relate to the justice in that so they shake their heads and say - ah heck, if they'd just execute then we wouldn't have this problem. That is a true statement, by the way.

Fire away!!!!

[quote="ziggy"]Yes it hurts society in many ways - mostly it damages the credibility of our justice system. Like BobsKat said - prison is to get you to "act right". That's like my boss letting me off for years with pay simply because I do my job minimally. Nobody can relate to the justice in that so they shake their heads and say - ah heck, if they'd just execute then we wouldn't have this problem. That is a true statement, by the way.

Fire away!!!![/quote]
No no no no no no no!!!!! See pretty much any of my other posts. The solution is to keep violent offenders in custody. The solution is NOT to execute people.

I know Scott and you are noble, honest and wise. You make me think and re-think! I was just pointing out that if he was executed, he wouldn't be going free and the whole cruelty to the family of having to fight his release at scheduled hearings would not exist. You think it's morally wrong, but the statement is indeed true. I'm not taking any stand that way of thinking is morally right, just saying it's a true statement. I better be careful, I feel Andres breath on the back of my neck like a TRex!!!! JK, Andy, love u man.

ziggy wrote:I know Scott and you are noble, honest and wise. You make me think and re-think! I was just pointing out that if he was executed, he wouldn't be going free and the whole cruelty to the family of having to fight his release at scheduled hearings would not exist. You think it's morally wrong, but the statement is indeed true. I'm not taking any stand that way of thinking is morally right, just saying it's a true statement. I better be careful, I feel Andres breath on the back of my neck like a TRex!!!! JK, Andy, love u man.

I might save this one.