Minnesota House, Senate Leadership Plan Hearings on Decision to Release Man Who Killed Oakdale Officer

Minnesota House and Senate leadership are asking that the state’s Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy appear in legislative hearings on his decision to grant parole to the man who shot and killed an Oakdale police officer in 1982, according to a letter delivered Thursday to Gov. Mark Dayton.

A Star Tribune article about the release, “raises far too many unanswered questions about the recent and what we believe are unprecedented decisions made by Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy,” says the letter, signed by Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and House Speaker Kurt Zellers.

Republican leadership is also questioning a decision to release John Scruggs, a Minneapolis gang leader who ordered the killing of a teenage girl he thought was a police informant.

“Commissioner Roy has released two convicted killers who were sentenced to life for their heinous and egregious crimes,” the letter says.

At the time Tim Eling was convicted for killing Oakdale officer Richard Walton, someone convicted of first-degree murder became eligible for parole after serving 17 years, said Minnesota Department of Corrections Communications Director John Schadl. In 1993, the law was changed so that someone convicted of first-degree murder of an officer became subject to a life sentence with no parole, he said. Although the law was changed, a court sentence cannot be retroactively changed, he said.

Roy will appear at legislative hearings on the issue, Schadl said.

“A constructive and informed dialogue with legislators in the hearing process is the foundation of good policy that will serve the people of Minnesota,” he said.