Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons urged the Massachusetts Parole Board to maintain behind bars the person who killed her son.
“Mr. Benjamin shouldn’t be launched,” she informed the board. “Not now, not ever.”
Ernest Nate Benjamin shot and killed Anthony Simmons, in 1995. He was convicted of first-degree homicide.
After 30 years in jail, Benjamin is eligible for parole. He is a part of the “Mattis” cohort, a gaggle of incarcerated people whose sentences are being re-evaluated after the Supreme Judicial Court docket’s Commonwealth v. Mattis‘ determination.
Within the landmark break up ruling, the courtroom stated it’s unconstitutional for judges to condemn anybody below the age of 21 to life in jail with out the potential for parole.
“Developments in scientific analysis have confirmed what many know nicely by means of expertise: the brains of rising adults usually are not absolutely mature,” the justices wrote. “Particularly, the scientific report strongly helps the rivalry that rising adults have the identical core neurological traits as juveniles have.”
The choice left greater than 100 individuals in Massachusetts eligible for parole.
On Thursday, the parole board heard Benjamin’s case in entrance of a packed room. Benjamin, cuffed to the chair, learn his assertion by means of tears.
He accepted “all duty for [his] actions” and apologized on to the sufferer’s household.
“ I’d such as you all to know of the regret that I carry deep down inside for depriving you of your beloved,” he stated. “I am really sorry for what I’ve performed to you.”
He offered himself as a reformed man and spoke concerning the work he has performed on his psychological well being.
“Had it not been for my refusal to take care of my very own ache and points that I skilled whereas rising up, Anthony should be alive.” Benjamin stated.
The board questioned Benjamin for practically two hours. They requested concerning the day of the crime, his psychological well being journey, the applications he accomplished inside jail and his plan if he have been to be launched.
A number of family and friends members additionally spoke on behalf of Benjamin.
When it was her time to handle the board, Simmons positioned a photograph of her deceased son Anthony, on the desk as her daughter, Jada Simmons, sat beside her.
Simmons spoke concerning the ache she and her household have endured because the homicide.
“ He didn’t simply kill a person. He devastated a complete household,” she stated. “My daughters misplaced their brother. Anthony’s daughter misplaced her father.”
Simmons disagreed with the premise that the crime was “youthful impulsivity.”
“ Mr. Benjamin was not a toddler when he killed my son,” she stated. “He was practically 20. He was an grownup.”
Simmons additionally took challenge with Benjamin’s re-entry plan. Benjamin informed the board he’d enroll within the state’s re-entry applications. However Simmons questioned whether or not or not these kinds of applications are more likely to exist sooner or later.
“Everyone knows that we’re coming into very, very onerous occasions with important federal funds cuts going within the very companies he is relying on to offer stability and supervision may disappear,” she stated.
Benjamin’s lawyer, Lisa Newman-Polk, disputed Simmons’ claims about reentry applications and requested the board to recollect the aim of the Mattis determination.
“The science has progressed in understanding that younger individuals, even at 20, usually are not absolutely developed,” she stated. “Particularly when somebody has endured the sort of actually unimaginable trauma that Nate has endured.”
The board is predicted to decide on Benjamin’s parole within the subsequent few months.
This section aired on April 18, 2025.
