State Senate Republicans To Hold Hearings On Pardons, Parole

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in New York will hold hearings into recent decisions by the state parole board to release some high-profile offenders.

The state Senate's GOP majority announced the move Monday.

No dates have been announced. Lawmakers say the hearings will focus on several parole decisions, including one earlier this year to release 70-year-old Herman Bell, a former Black Liberation Army radical who killed two New York City police officers in 1971.

The hearings will also examine Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's decision to restore voting rights of thousands of former inmates.

The governor's spokesman noted that the parole board acts independently and that Cuomo himself has disagreed with some of its decisions. He said the governor's decision to restore voting rights is in line with more than a dozen other states.