Sunday June 24 04:00 AM EDT
The Garden State has a motto for murderers: New Jersey and you - perfect together
That, anyway, is the message from New Jersey's Supreme Court, which recently cleared the way for a child-murderer to go free before he's even had a chance to experience his first mid-life crisis.
Sam Manzie, sentenced to 70 years for the murder of 11-year-old Eddie Werner Jr., would have been eligible for parole at the age of 74 under New Jersey's 1997 No Early Release law. It requires prisoners to serve 85 percent of their jail time before qualifying for early release.
One problem: The statute doesn't apply to murder.
Murderers, the court said, are subject to a different law, which sets out a minimum of 30 years before eligibility kicks in. This gives Manzie, who began serving time at age 15, the chance to breathe free air at a relatively youthful 45.
Now, it's conceivable that if Manzie had committed some less serious crime, he might be forced to remain behind bars longer under the 85 percent rule.
Which makes no sense.
The rule was written to keep violent criminals in prison for longer periods of time. Doesn't raping a child, strangling him with an electrical cord and stuffing the corpse in a suitcase qualify as violent?
Those were Manzie's horrific acts.
Yet a state appeals court said officials must ignore all that, and now the state Supreme Court has said it can't - or won't - undo the damage.
State Attorney General John Farmer will ask the court to reconsider.
If the court turns him down, Jersey's lawmakers need to find a way to close this weird loophole.
And keep murderers behind bars - where they belong.
� 1997
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