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Parole board recommends clemency for two murderers Friday, Mar 7, 2008 Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Parole Board on Thursday recommended executive clemency for two convicted murderers serving life sentences in prison, including one sentenced in 1977 when he was 18. The board approved the recommendations over the objections of law enforcement officials in the counties were the crimes occurred. The recommendations go to Gov. Mike Beebe following a 30-day notice period. Ronald S. Collier, 48, was 18 when he was convicted of first-degree murder in 1977 in Poinsett County. In his clemency application, Collier said he killed a woman after he broke into her home. He wrote the woman "tried to hold me. Keep me from getting away. I hit her and she died." Since then, he said, he has "grown up out of the foolish kid I once was." Other information about the crime and the victim was not available Thursday afternoon. Poinsett County Sheriff Larry Mills objected to the board's clemency recommendation. The board also recommended clemency for James Strouthers, 59, who was convicted in Pulaski County of first-degree murder in 1971. On his application for clemency, Strouthers wrote that he had been behind bars for 36 years, had no friends, just family. In a letter in support of Strouthers' clemency request, his sister, Carolyn Luke of Chicago, said Strouthers was serving life for a crime he did not commit. The Parole Board did not provide information about the crime with its clemency recommendation. Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley and Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay objected to the board's recommendation. Also Thursday, the board recommended clemency for 51-year-old Steven Freeman, sentenced in 1997 to 40 years in prison after convictions in Pulaski County on charges of rape, theft of property, theft of leased property and being a habitual offender. |
