Prison time really up to parole board

TV commentators on the Fox News Network were reeling Monday night, apparently shocked by the "leniency" of Utah's homicide laws.

One demanded to know why Mark Hacking hadn't been charged with capital murder in the apparent death of his wife, Lori, and suggested the first-degree homicide charge against Hacking might be referred to as "misdemeanor murder."

Also debated was the 5-years-to-life sentence a first-degree felony charge carries — with the apparent misunderstanding that Utah judges have the discretion to choose a sentence somewhere along that spectrum.

Not so, say state officials.

Utah has "indeterminate sentencing," which means judges are compelled to impose a particular sentence with a specified range of years in prison — but how long someone remains behind bars is up to the Utah State Board of Pardons and Parole.

"Utah is the purest form of indeterminate sentencing in the country," said board spokesman John Green. "On the other end of the spectrum you have determinate sentencing, where the offender at sentencing knows exactly how much time they are going to serve."

That time is fixed — regardless of the inmate's behavior, including demonstration of remorse, behavior on the inside and potential for rehabilitation.

Constitutionally created, Utah's five-member board of pardons and parole inherits "jurisdiction" over a defendant once he or she is sentenced to serve time in the state prison.

The board, in essence, becomes the sentencing entity for the inmate and determines the length of stay based on a variety of factors including the nature of the crime, whether the inmate shows remorse, his behavior in prison and input from victims.

That means regardless of sentencing guidelines, regardless of a prosecutor's recommendation or even despite a judge's urging, the board can do what it wants.

"The board tends to keep the worst of the worst in longer than the national average, but conversely, other people may do the average national time, or in many times, less," Green said.

In the case of Robert William Labrum, sentencing guidelines recommended he spend 36 months in the state prison for the strangulation death of a 19-year-old woman.

Labrum pleaded guilty to manslaughter, a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years behind bars, in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to drop other charges, such as obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

In that case of more than a decade ago that bears a resemblance to the Hacking circumstances, Labrum agreed to disclose the location of the body in the deal that was struck.

But when the board looked at the circumstances, it declined to set a hearing date for the possibility of parole to be discussed.