Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has selected a former prosecutor who currently heads the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence as the new chair of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.
At a press conference this morning, Erika M. Tindill of New Haven said she accepts the governor's offer to lead the board "with great humility and a great eagerness." The position pays $132,600 annually.
The board is an autonomous state agency that has the authority to grant pardons for criminal convictions and to grant parole to appropriate offenders. It came under close scrutiny in the aftermath of the Cheshire killings. State officials acknowledged they had not been following a law passed in 1997 that required prosecutors to send the state Board of Pardons and Paroles a sentencing transcript for each inmate jailed more than two years.
The board is currently led by former state Rep. Robert Farr of West Hartford, who won praise for his handling of post-Cheshire attempts to reform the system.
But Malloy said today that more must be done. "That is not to say that Mr. Farr hasn't done what he was asked to do by the prior administration,'' the governor said. "On the other hand, we're spending a lot of money to build a technology system to support pardons and paroles...and I thought the moment was an appropriate one to bring up a different balance of talents.''