Office of the Attorney General: A.G. COMMENDS BOARD FOR DENIAL OF PAROLE FOR KILLER OF QUENETTE SHEHANE, DAUGHTER OF VOCAL FOUNDER

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

August 04, 2008

(MONTGOMERY)—Attorney General Troy King commended the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles for its denial this morning of parole for Jerry Lee Jones, the killer of Quenette Shehane. Miss Shehane was the daughter of Miriam Shehane, who has led the victims' advocacy movement in Alabama and founded Victims of Crime and Leniency. The Board today rejected Jones' request for parole, and set to be heard again in five years, maximum set-off allowed by state law.

Jones is serving a life sentence for the murder of Miss Shehane, who was a 21-year-old graduate of Birmingham-Southern College on December 20, 1976, when Jones, along with two companions, abducted Miss Shehane from a convenience store where she had gone to buy a bottle of salad dressing. They raped and assaulted her before shooting her to death. The next day, her nude body was found on the side of the road in Birmingham. Jones has had three trials in the case, the first two resulted in his being convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. After the first two convictions were overturned on appeal, a third trial resulted in a first-degree murder conviction and a sentence of life imprisonment for Jones.

After her daughter was so brutally murdered, Miriam Shehane responded to her loss by becoming a champion for the rights of victims throughout Alabama. Mrs. Shehane continues to serve as state president of Victims of Crime and Leniency, an organization she founded in 1982. VOCAL is dedicated to protecting the rights of crime victims within the criminal justice system. The work of Miriam Shehane and VOCAL has produced significant reform in Alabama's legal system to better protect the rights of victims of crime – including, particularly, establishing the rights of victims to be informed of criminal proceedings, to be present in the courtroom, to be notified about parole hearings, and to be eligible for compensation. The group also provides free counseling, support at trials and parole hearings, and other advocacy services for crime victims.

"I was proud to stand today with the parents of Quenette and the victims' rights movement in Alabama, Edward and Miriam Shehane. All of us should be ashamed to know how we desecrate the memories of those victimized by acts of violence when we drag their families into hearings like these. We can, at least, breathe a sigh of relief that today, in this case, justice was protected one more time," said Attorney General King as he left the parole hearing room with the Shehane family.