ANNAPOLIS, MD – Governor Martin O’Malley signed Executive Orders today granting conditional commutations to Mark Farley Grant and Tamara Settles. The Governor had previously published notice in the Daily Record that these commutation requests were under consideration. Mark Farley Grant’s life term was commuted to a term of life with all but 45 years suspended. Tamara Settles’ life term was commuted to a term of life with all but 40 years suspended.
The conditional commutations do not provide for immediate release of the grantees. Rather, the grantees will have mandatory release dates, and the Parole Commission will have the discretion to parole the grantees in advance of those mandatory release dates without the further approval of the Governor. The conditional commutations also require the Parole Commission and Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to formulate a transition plan to help the grantees successfully return to life outside of prison. The conditional commutations provide for supervision of the grantees after release by the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and require the grantees to obey all laws and adhere to certain conditions of release, including the standard conditions of parole. If the grantee violates one of these conditions, the Parole Commission may revoke supervised release or, under some circumstances, recommend to the Governor that the conditional commutation should be revoked and the original life sentence re-imposed.
These are the first two commutation requests granted by Governor O’Malley. He has previously denied 49 commutation requests, 4 parole recommendations, and 4 medical parole recommendations from inmates serving life sentences. He has granted two medical paroles for inmates who were not serving life sentences.
http://www.governor.maryland.gov/executiveorders/01.01.2012.07eo.pdf
http://www.governor.maryland.gov/executiveorders/01.01.2012.06eo.pdf
Tags: commutation, sentence
