“I have not heard that before.
Tell us more about that.”
Parole in the federal prison system was abolished in the late 1980s. But because Pollard started serving time before that, he is grandfathered in and is one of the few inmates left who can actually apply for parole. He has been eligible to apply for 15 years but has never done so.
“Are there procedural problems with applying for parole that would hurt his other appeals?”
No. He doesn’t have any other appeals. His attorney neglected to file a Notice of Appeal in a timely manner so he lost the right to appeal his sentence — ever. That sounds unfair, but the current federal judiciary has been stacked with judges who are completely unfavorable to convicted felons.
” Do you need to admit guilt? What is the stated reason?”
I am not a parole attorney so I don’t know how much of a confession you have to make. Here is the link to the US Parole Commission:
Among the claims that have been made by Pollard’s defenders are
(1) If he is turned down for parole, he can’t apply again for 15 years. That is false. If he were to apply and get turned down, there is a MANDATORY rehearing 15 years later. The irony is that 15 years have passed since his first opportunity to apply. But he could have applied every 24 months since he was first eligible. (I have no idea who is passing on this false information.)
(2) He is certain to get turned down because of all the opposition. Given all the public officials who have called for his release, that certainly seems a pretty poor argument.
BTW he has a presumptive parole date of November 21, 2015, thirty years after his arrest. The rules say that he gets paroled then unless the government can convince the parole board that he is likely to commit further crimes, which is highly unlikely since he is never going to get anywhere near classified information in the future. Even after that release, he will be on parole for the rest of his life.