Pictured: Alfred Therrien and his attorney John J. Barter in front of the Mass. Parole Board in Natick

First “emerging adult” parole hearing held in Massachusetts since historic ruling on life without parole for those under 21


On July 16, Alfred Therrien appeared with his attorney John J. Barter before the Parole Board and became the first person in Massachusetts to seek parole as a “Mattis case.”

Commonwealth v Mattis, the monumental ruling rendered by the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) this past January, held that life without parole is now a violation of the Massachusetts constitution for those under the age of 21. The decision underscores the importance of developing-brain science, with the judge finding that, “in terms of impulse control, emerging adults are more similar to sixteen and seventeen-year-old juveniles than to older adults. That is, they are less able to control their impulses in emotionally arousing situations.”

Therrien, who committed his crime between the ages of 18 and 20, was the first to be granted a parole hearing because of this recent ruling. He had previously been sentenced to life without parole (LWOP), also known as “the other death penalty.”

As we reported in January, this historic decision made approximately 200 people in Mass prisons eligible for parole. Nearly half of them have served at least 25 years behind bars. Therrien, who is 77, has been in prison for 57 years—incarcerated far longer than most of the 5,765 prisoners in Massachusetts, and longer than most of the 971 others serving a first-degree life sentence.

In front of five of the seven members of the Parole Board—two were not present, but will watch a recording of the hearing and vote on the case—Therrien apologized to the family members of those he harmed. The relatives sat on one side of the room, separated from Therrien’s family and supporters.

The purpose of any parole hearing, said Chair Tina Hurley, is to assess whether the candidate is suitable to be released back into society, and she told Therrien the board would determine “how he has changed and in what ways” in order to assess if he would be a risk to reoffend if released. A lifer paroled to the community remains on parole for the rest of their life under strict supervision.

Studies have shown that paroled lifers are a cohort least likely to recommit crimes. And according to the nonprofit Vera Institute, other research shows how people age out of crime. Among those findings: in New York, in 2018, “less than one percent of people older than 65 released on parole . . . returned to prison for a new conviction in the three years following their release.”

Hurley asked Therrien about shooting two people at Natoli’s Farm Market in Framingham, back in 1967. It was a hold-up, and he killed one of the store owners, Pasqualina Natoli, and wounded another person, 19-year-old Richard Adams, in the process of the robbery. Therrien said he imagined that he and his 16-year-old accomplice would “go get the money, leave, I’m rich.” It was the kind of thinking of a late adolescent—impulsive, overly-influenced by peers, and prioritizing “risk-taking in pursuit of reward.” As the Mattis decision points out—these are all features of emerging adults.

“I don’t remember squeezing the trigger,” Therrien said. He and his co-defendant didn’t really give shooting Adams a second thought as they pulled up to the market.

“It took me many years of self-realization. . . to understand the true scope of what I did,” Therrien said.

Therrien’s is one of the cases that was cited by his lawyer, John J. Barter, and by attorney Benjamin Keehn in a brief for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which provides lawyers for indigent clients. The brief was in support of Sheldon Mattis and Jason Robinson, named defendants in the historic emerging adult ruling. The lawyers state that Therrien’s story is one that “illustrate[s] the capacity of late adolescents to change for the better as they mature, even without a rational basis for believing that their self-improvement could make a difference to a parole board.”

At the hearing, Therrien described how he was sent at age 20 to MCI-Walpole’s notorious “Ten Block,” also known as the Departmental Segregation Unit. In the 1970s, the DSU was one of the most dangerous places in prison in the country. He saw life differently then. As a young man who thought he had no future in the free world, nothing to lose, Therrien said it was easy in prison to fall into drugs, alcohol, and violence. He described himself as “mad at the world.”

“When did you start to view things differently?” Hurley asked.

“Immediately after I pulled the trigger,” he said, meaning, even before he landed at Walpole. He had ignored his instincts:  “I thought, What the hell am I doing here?

But it took two years in segregation, or what many call solitary confinement (i.e. lockup for 22 or 23 hours a day, and being “targeted”— “People tried to kill me,” he said), before Therrien was sent to Norfolk MCI. There, he began to recover, and to transform his thinking.

He eventually discovered a passion for education, and over many years, while living in several different prisons, completed his GED and earned an associate degree from Bunker Hill Community College. Years later, he was awarded a bachelor’s degree from Boston University—magna cum laude. Therrien called the experience “one of the best things” in his life.”

At MCI-Norfolk, along with some other prisoners, he started a program to counsel youth called Project Revamp, aiming to help young people avoid mistakes like he made. When the Department of Correction allowed furloughs in the 1980s, i.e. overnight or weekend stays away from prison, he earned 24 overnight visits.

Therrien, who has spent the last 23 years at MCI-Shirley, has serious medical issues, which is not surprising since those over 55 in prison are considered old. In 2017, WBUR reported that “Massachusetts has the highest percentage of [incarcerated individuals] over age 55 in the country,” according to a study from Pew Charitable Trust—more than 14%. The nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative said that by 2022, that number had increased to nearly 20%.

Therrien has suffered from heart attacks, and had open-heart surgery and a stent inserted. He would need medical supervision upon release. But according to forensic psychologist Frank DiCataldo, who testified for him at the hearing, he is “well beyond the risk phase of life,” and summarized why his release would not be a threat to the community.

If he is released, Therrien would stay with his sister, who also testified for him. She’s offering to provide her brother with a home, transportation, and assistance with medical needs.

Many families of those who have had loved ones killed are traumatized to have to deal with such parole hearings. As Liam Lowney, the executive director of the Mass Office of Victim Assistance (MOVA), wrote regarding the “impact of Mattis on surviving families of homicide victims,” “Any process or timeline to determine new sentences or parole eligibility must be established in accordance with the Massachusetts Victim Rights Law . . . which affords families the right to be informed, present, and heard in sentencing and parole proceedings, should they choose to do so.”

Those testifying against Therrien included the granddaughter of Pasqualina Natoli, who shared a photo of her young grandmother and spoke about how her family of Italian immigrants was devastated by the loss. She said she believes in “a life for a life,” and asked the board to keep Therrien behind bars.

The Parole Board will most likely vote on the case long before the decision is released publicly.

On average, since Tina Hurley became chair, it has taken three to four months to release decisions on parole, an improvement over 11 to 12 months under the former chair, Glorianne Moroney.

According to the Sentencing Project, a Washington, DC-based advocacy group, Massachusetts is among three states that have expanded upon the US Supreme Court rulings to restrict LWOP sentences for young adults.

There are no Mattis hearings scheduled on the August calendar, and the Parole Board’s September schedule for hearings has not yet been released. According to Mara Voukydis, director of the Parole Advocacy Unit at the Committee for Public Counsel Services, “More Mattis hearings are anticipated before the end of the year.”

This article is syndicated by the MassWire news service of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and made possible by a grant from the Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation. If you want to see more reporting like this, make a contribution at givetobinj.org.

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