James Fields' situation isn't unique. There are 113 people in Minnesota state prisons who were found guilty of first-degree murder who are eligible for parole in coming years because their convictions occurred before state laws changed to make a life sentence for first-degree murder truly life, without chance for parole.
Fields was the last person to be sentenced for first-degree murder in Minnesota under an old law by which even convicted first-degree murderers could get a parole hearing after just 14 years and become eligible for potential freedom after 17 years. Earlier in 1989, Minnesota lawmakers had changed first-degree murder sentences to mandatory life without parole for at least 30 years, but the rule didn't kick in until Aug. 1 - three days after Fields' sentencing.
In 2005 state law changed again, making a life sentence mandatory, with no parole possible, for nearly all first-degree intentional murder cases.
In addition to the 113 murders who are or will become eligible for parole in Minnesota, at least 47 other convicted murderers already have been granted their freedom in recent years under current Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy's administration, including seven in 2015 and five already this year.
Some were among the state's highest-profile crimes at the time they occurred:
• Edwin Hull, who had driven from International Falls to the Twin Cities to rob drug dealers, was convicted of the execution-style killing of three people in March 1976. Two men, tied to chairs, were shot in the head, as was one of their girlfriends. Hull was paroled by Roy in 2015 after 38 years in prison. The state doesn't reveal when a paroled murderer is set free or where they plan on living, but KMSP-TV in the Twin Cities reported last year that he was living with his son in the St. Cloud area.
• David Francis Hoffman was convicted of murdering his wife, Carol, in Corcoran, west of Minneapolis, in 1980 by strangling her while their children slept nearby, apparently because she refused to have sex with him. He jammed pieces of her body down the garbage disposal in their house and threw the rest of her body in a nearby lake. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. But, under the law in place at that time, he was eligible for parole after just 17 years, just like Fields. Hoffman came up for parole five times, and was denied each time. But on April 12 this year Roy approved Hoffman's path to release, despite a multitude of pleas from Carol Hoffman's family who notified media of the decision. David Hoffman, now 69, was sent to a halfway house and is slated to get his full freedom in April 2018. The state will make no notice of his eventual release.
"Our family is fighting to keep a specific person in prison. But we also want the public to know that they have no idea what's going on here. There's absolutely no notification when these guys are up for parole. There's no notification when murderers are set free," said Kim Nygaard, daughter of Don Isakson, who was killed by Fields. "That just seems wrong. Minnesota needs to change the system."
Nygaard said she has sent letters to Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and other key political leaders. She hasn't received any response.
"People need to know that a life sentence doesn't mean life. These guys get out," she said. "Shouldn't it be part of the equation that the public know if these guys are living next door?"
Roy declined repeated requests by the News Tribune for interviews on the issue.
The Isakson family wants to see state rules and laws changed so the public is notified before and after parole hearings. And they'd like to see a notification system for paroled murderers like the state's sexual predator community notification. They'd also like state guidelines to offer less discretion to commissioners on parole decisions with less emphasis on release.
Corrections officials have said that the only crime committed by a paroled Minnesota murderer has been a DWI. All others have behaved themselves so far.
National crime statistics show convicted murderers are the least likely criminal to repeat their crime after being paroled. According to a 2014 report by the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending, less than one-half percent kill again.
But that's not enough for Don Isakson's family, who note Fields already has been the exception to that statistic. He was on parole for a Texas murder when he killed Isakson.
"Who's going to take responsibility if he gets out and kills a third time?" asked John Isakson, one of Don Isakson's sons. "What's the commissioner going to say to that family?''
It's not the first time Roy has been criticized for releasing convicted murderers.
In 2011 Roy was asked to appear before a legislative committee to explain his decision to grant parole to Timothy Elling, convicted of murdering off-duty Oakdale, Minn., police officer Richard Walton in January 1983. Elling had terminal cancer and Roy said he had been a model prisoner. At least two Republican lawmakers criticized the parole. But no changes in state law or corrections policy were enacted.
Phyllis Stebbins, the mother of Carol Hoffman, said she's "lost all faith in the criminal justice system" after David Hoffman was granted parole. "The system doesn't work. It's not fair. This one man has too much power and I don't trust him," she said of Roy.
Stebbins said she believes Roy has leaned too far toward releasing convicted murderers simply because they are aging in prison.
"I think he had his mind made up before the (parole) hearing even started," she said of Roy. "There should be some way for people to know about what's going on. But everything is done in secret. We don't even know where he (Hoffman) is now or where he might end up when he's out."
While Roy would not grant an interview to the News Tribune, in a July 2015 interview he told KMSP-TV in Minneapolis that he lost sleep for days and weeks before parole hearings.
"I have often said we are not zookeepers, and if we don't believe people can change and get better our work is for naught," Roy said.
Roy was director of Arrowhead Regional Corrections in Duluth, a multi-county detention facility, when Dayton tapped him to become state corrections commissioner in January 2011.
Roy has released more first-degree murder convicts than any previous commissioner. Supporters note that's in part because of population increases and the big increase in crime in the 1970s and '80s. People convicted in those decades are the ones coming up for review now and for the next few years.
