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Parole board recommends clemency for man serving life sentence Friday, May 2, 2008 Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Parole Board on Thursday recommended executive clemency for a man convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison for a 1980 killing in Dumas. Anthony Thrash was convicted by a Desha County jury in 1985. In 1996, Thrash dressed up as a woman and escaped from the Cummins Unit at Grady in Lincoln County with other visitors to the facility. He was nabbed several months later in Pennsylvania, where he was living with a woman, Nellie Jean Smith, who had been a volunteer counselor at Cummins. In 1998 he was sentenced to an additional six years in prison for second-degree escape. The parole board recommended Thursday that Thrash's sentenced be commuted to 23 years. Also Thursday, the board recommend clemency for six other inmates and pardons for 19 people. The recommendations will go to Gov. Mike Beebe after a 30-day comment period. Thrash was arrested in 1984 for the 1980 shooting death of Garland Bruce Gill of Dumas. He was taken into custody after a woman confessed to the murder and implicated him. In his application for clemency, Thrash, who is now in the maximum security prison at Tucker, maintained his innocence and said the woman who testified against him gave conflicting information. Thrash also said in his application he has learned to read while in prison and has taken some college-level classes. He also is working to get a minister's license. "Despite the fact that I am a person questionably convicted, nevertheless, I have not been sitting around simply holding resentment or festering anger, bitterness and hostility," he wrote. "I have done my very best to take advantage of this bad situation by involving myself in programs and activities that allowed me to become a healthier and well-rounded person, physically, mentally and spiritually." Thrash also noted in his application that he married Smith, who is now Jean Thrash, at the Tucker Unit in 2005. Thrash is a member of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, an inmate advocacy group. In its recommendation, the board noted that several people spoke for Thrash's clemency, and he has completed several skills and anger resolution courses, college-level classes and is studying to become a minister. Desha County Prosecutor Thomas Deen objected to the parole board's recommendation, saying the crime Thrash was convicted of was "violent" and that the inmate was "habitual." "Clemency (is) inappropriate," Deen said. The Desha County Sheriff Jim Snyder also objected, saying he was "totally opposed to this request." |
