LERNER LOSES PAROLE BATTLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303650001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 28, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303650001-5
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
28 June 1985
LERNER LOSES PAROLE BATTLE
PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Convicted killer Maurice ''Pro', Lerner, once linked to an alleged plot to
kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has lost a long legal battle for immediate
parole eligibility in two gangland slayings.
Attorney General Arlene Violet said Friday the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled
that Lerner must stay in prison until 1989, 20 years after his arrest on charges
in the 1968 gangland deaths of Rudolph Marfeo and Anthony Melei.
The dispute began when the state Legislature reduced the minimum prison time
required for parole eligibility in life sentences from 20 years to 10. The
action came prior to Lerner's 1970 trial but after the killings, touching off a
12-year legal battle.
Lerner, who was once linked to a purported CIA plot to kill Castro in the
1960, s was serving consecutive life terms in e shotgun slayings. Me-claimed he
was eligible for parole i under a revise rues.
Former Attorney General Dennis J. Roberts II said even though the Legislature
reduced the minimum time period for life sentences, Lerner had to serve 10 years
of each life term because they were consecutive.
Roberts had contested an opinion from his predecessor, Julius Michaelson,
which supported Lerner',s, contention and various state and federal courts made
different decisions as''`the case progressed.
During the legal battle, the convicted killer was bounced back and forth
between mimimum- and maximum-security units at the state prison and even entered
work release at times, though he was never actually paroled.
In a January decision, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled
in favor of Roberts, overturning a 1981 ruling by a U.S. District Court judge.
The district court ruling had overturned a state Supreme Court decision against
Lerner.
Lerner appealed the Circuit Court ruling to the Supreme Court, which issued
its decision June 10.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000303650001-5