The monster who admitted to killing, molesting and burning an aged Queens couple was roaming the streets due to a little-known change to the state parole legislation championed by mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Jamel McGriff, an ex-con intercourse offender on parole, did not register his deal with this summer time — a violation that may have landed him again within the slammer three years in the past.
However “Much less Is Extra” parole reforms enacted in 2022 allowed him to remain free.
The laws retains parolees out of the clink whereas a prolonged courtroom course of performs out to find out their guilt or innocence on the brand new fees, and in addition created a three-strike coverage giving them a move on their first two violations.
The measure handed two years after Albany enacted the equally disastrous bail reform legal guidelines, which at the moment are blamed for the revolving door of justice that lets profession criminals again on the streets. Nevertheless it didn’t seize the eye of the general public and media that bail reform did.
The parole invoice was authored by lefty Phara Souffrant Forrest, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and co-sponsored by her socialist comrade, Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, and dozens of others.
“Our system is constructed for life-long punishment, not rehabilitation,” Mamdani mentioned on the time. “Much less is Extra is a crucial step in the direction of guaranteeing that when our neighbors return residence from jail, they’ll keep at residence. I’m proud to be a part of the passage of this invoice.”
Mamdani didn’t return messages from The Put up asking him to elucidate his place on parole reform — or about this week’s horrific Queens homicide.
A plank of the DSA’s soft-on-crime platform particularly requires the finish of imprisonment for parole violations.
The invoice was pushed via by Meeting Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and Senate Majority Chief
Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), and signed into legislation by Gov. Hochul.
The parole change has unleashed violent criminals on NYC streets.
Out of 20,968 ex-cons on parole who dedicated new crimes in New York state final yr, 17,825 — a stunning 85% — have been freed whereas going through pending new fees, a Put up evaluation of Division of Legal Justice Providers knowledge discovered.
In 2021, earlier than the legislation went into impact, out of 17,633 parolees committing new crimes, 10,121 — or 57% — remained free.
“Bail reform isn’t almost as unhealthy as parole reform,” mentioned a critic who works within the legal justice system who requested to not be recognized for concern of retribution. “These are already confirmed felons.”
Earlier than “Much less is Extra,” a sex-offender registry violation would have been sufficient for a parole officer to have a suspect like McGriff detained pending the end result of a listening to.
McGriff’s case is even worse as a result of he was the prime suspect in at the very least two armed robberies within the Huge Apple this summer time, police mentioned.
The parole reforms additionally raised the burden of proving a parole violation from a “preponderance of the proof” to “clear and convincing proof.”
“It made it very troublesome to revoke somebody’s launch on parole,” Rafael Mangual, a authorized fellow on the Manhattan Institute, informed The Put up.
“Parole is a privilege, however sadly, New York state lawmakers of their infinite knowledge have chosen to reorient the legal justice system across the pursuits of defendants and never a lot across the curiosity of victims,” Mangual mentioned.
“The reform has definitely eroded the potential protections for the general public,” he mentioned.
The variety of folks locked up after violating parole because the reforms have been enacted fell from 2,332 in 2021 to 1,437 in 2024, a 38% drop, in accordance with the latest Division of Corrections knowledge.
“The supposed impact of reform was to make it tougher to revoke parole releases, even for people who’re going through fees, and it’s rooted within the misguided perception that ‘mass incarceration’ is pushed largely by parole revocations,” Mangual mentioned.
McGriff, 35, was on parole after serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence for theft, housebreaking and intercourse assault when he allegedly slaughtered Frank and Maureen Olton inside their Bellerose residence in chilly blood.
Different stunning examples of violent ex-cons allowed to roam the streets of Gotham regardless of committing new crimes whereas on parole embody:
- Jeffery “Zay” Mackenzie, launched on lifetime parole in 2022 after serving 21 years for fatally blasting a lady at a Brownsville laundromat. He has since been arrested at the very least 4 instances on drug dealing fees, together with on June 4 when he was allegedly caught red-handed in Greenwich Village peddling rocks of crack cocaine in mini-Ziploc luggage, police mentioned. The case nonetheless earlier than the courts.
- Lateef Inexperienced, a homeless man arraigned for tried homicide April 18 in an unprovoked brass knuckle knife assault on a Bronx straphanger. Inexperienced, 50, served just below 4 years behind bars in connection to a March 2016 hate assault that broke one other man’s nostril in Manhattan. He was PAROLED in 2021 and WAS arrested for turnstile leaping two months earlier than the subway assault, which remains to be pending.
- Waheed Foster, an ex-con vagrant accused of beating a lady in a Queens subway station in 2022, was free regardless of being arrested whereas on parole weeks earlier than the caught-on-video assault. The profession legal’s rap sheet included killing his grandma when he was 14.
- Charles Rowe, on lifetime parole after almost 35 years’ onerous time for the brutal rape and homicide of a 10-year-old Queens lady, was charged with sexually assaultING a lady and raping one other in 2023, regardless of being arrested whereas on parole a couple of months prior for automotive theft — and blowing off his courtroom appearances twice.
“Quite a lot of crimes immediately could not have occurred if we had violated parolees,” mentioned the system insider. “Earlier than, in case your parole officer involves your home and also you’re excessive they may lock you up for that.”
Mangual identified that the reforms have been “basically taking the enamel out of any potential sanction for failing to conform.”
“The actual fact they’re on parole will not be going to discourage them in the identical method that it may need previous to the reform,” he mentioned. “And . . . the general public goes to undergo offenses which may not have in any other case been dedicated.”
