Hello, and happy new year. Last week, I mailed Troy's second commutation application to the Michigan Parole and Commutation Board. Inmates in Michigan are permitted to apply for commutation every two years, and it has now been two years since Troy's first application was received by the board.
Applicants are not supposed to send the same documentation in support of their bids for commutation as they did in previous applications, and we adhered to this rule. And yet the package I sent was as thick as the first one! New documentation this time included news of Troy's popular NPR essay for the This I Believe program, the fact that his Ethics Project was approved as an official program of the Michigan Department of Corrections, excerpts from the starter kit Troy wrote to help prisoners in other facilities start their own Ethics Projects, and last, but not least, the letters sent by many of Troy's supporters in the spring of last year expressing their sadness at the outcome of his first commutation application.
We have more hope for this application than the last one. The men Troy has known who have received commutations have all applied more than once. And we have learned that the board is more receptive of applications from people who have served 25 or more years for second degree murder. At the time of his last application, Troy had served 23 years. The 25th anniversary of his crime was in late November of last year.
As always, I thank you all for your support for Troy. Please keep this application in your thoughts and prayers, and also please pray for Troy and me and our friends and families as we endure this time of waiting to see how the board and Governor Jennifer Granholm will handle this request for clemency. And don't forget the family of Troy's victim, who have suffered much.
—Maryann
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