- How long does it go?

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

For 47 years already.

- You kill an officer.

You are going to spend the rest of your life in prison.

- I didn't see much sense of his ability to ever get out of prison, but things changed.

- Hope.

We always have hope.

Everybody's praying and believing that I'm gonna be granted parole.

That God's gonna change these people's hearts.

- Major funding for In Their Hands is provided by Vital Projects Fund with additional funding from the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation.

Leonard C. Goodman, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Illinois Humanities, and William and Irene Beck.

- Ms. Daniels?

Here.

Mr. James?

Here.

Ms. Martinez?

Here.

Mr. Mears?

Here.

Ms. Miller?

Here.

Mrs. Perkins?

Here.

Mr. Ruggiero?

Here.

Mr. Shelton?

Here.

Mr. Tupy?

Here.

And Chairman Findley?

Here.

- So this case is very polarizing.

This deals with the murder of a police officer.

There's a lot of layers to it and a lot of emotion on, on both sides.

Ronnie Carrasquillo is up for parole, for the crime of first degree murder he is classified as minimum security.

A-grade and low escape risk.

Could I put my feet down, or just go like this?

Ronnie Carrasquillo's age At the time of the offense was 18, he was sentenced to 200 to 600 years in prison.

- I was 18 years old.

I'm 65 years old now, so I spent 47 years in prison.

I'm guilty.

I fired the gun.

So I'm guilty, period.

I've taken accountability every time I go to the parole board.

1985 was my first parole hearing.

- 1985, 86, 87.

- I've been to the parole board at least 30 times.

- 92, 93, 94, 95.

- You have these people in these positions.

We're gonna keep you forever.

We're gonna waste you forever.

How long does it go?

How long now that, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for 47 years already.

- Good morning.

Good morning.

- What can I do?

- We have so many supporters.

You know, we've had as much as 40 people come out.

Zachary, you want a yogurt babe?

The parole board members always say the same thing.

We've never seen this much support.

We're there every year.

I thought Zachary was driving.

Okay, let's pray.

We have good, good, uh.

A good outcome.

Yes, a good outcome.

We really believe every single time we're up there.

Okay, we got it this year.

We got it.

I have to.

I have to, without hope you don't have anything.

So I can't give up that hope.

If you love someone that's incarcerated, you don't have a heart.

If you don't feel that emptiness when they're not around, who gives an 18-year-old who has never committed a crime 200 to 600 years?

There has to be some kind of consequence to everything we do.

And when I think of Ronnie's case, others may think differently.

I think he's been in prison in 47 years.

He's done his time.

- Ronnie's case is so exceptional.

There is no one else in the Illinois Department of Corrections who has had this history with the parole board.

There is a statute that governs the parole board's decisions in theory, and yet the decisions are not appealable.

So his freedom is definitely in the hands of the parole board.

There's no question about that.

His freedom is what matters now is not what Ronnie did in the heat of a moment, during a drunken evening back in 1976.

It's just not the question.

The question is, has he served his time?

- Good morning.

Good morning.

Hey.

Hey.

Good.

- Yeah, you too.

- Oh, Charles Hoffman's here.

I didn't, - I know.

I didn't know he was coming.

Mr. Hoffman?

I'm Ronnie's brother.

- You know, it's the first time that I don't feel like a hundred percent.

So maybe this is the day.

- That's the day we, - You never know.

Because we're always like so hyped.

- If they deny him today, I want to talk to Ronnie about maybe filing a motion to see if we can get him out on bond pending an appeal.

He would want me to do that.

Okay.

So, Cataranza's up there.

Are they?

The what?

The head of the head of the FOP is here - The prioritization of a law enforcement death speaks right to the fabric of society.

He means something.

He, he carried a badge and a gun just like we all did.

And sadly, he paid the price.

I'm giving a stance on behalf of the 17,000 active and retired members that we represent.

You appoint and entrust these people to make informed, articulate, educated decisions.

But legislatures change, politicians change and God only knows where it goes from there.

- Motion to open this session.

We're gonna conduct a hearing today of two cases.

My family members go to every hearing.

A lot of friends go to the hearing.

Everybody's praying and believing that I'm gonna be granted parole.

That God's gonna change these people's heart to see what I've been established, what I've been done.

I came in as a child and, and matured into where I am now.

So we're expecting and believing I'm gonna be granted that mercy.

(suspenseful music) (suspenseful music) (suspenseful music) - Ms. Terrones?

Present.

Mr. Tupy?

Here.

Chairman Shelton?

- Good morning here.

Okay.

Today's hearing is in fact a continuance of the February hearing.

We took testimony on behalf of Mr. Carrasquillo.

Now there was no one present to, in opposition to the case.

Would you care to introduce yourself, sir?

And be sworn.

- My name is John Catanzara Jr. President of Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge Seven.

Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for the opportunity.

I've been coming to these hearings for quite some time now, and speaking at them for the last several years as President of the Union.

This case specifically, I'm very well versed in the defendant repeatedly said he was just firing willy-nilly into a crowd, to disperse something that was going on across the street, but had no idea what he was doing.

There's a lot of new members on this board from the last time we were here.

And I will just tell you this, I was a policeman for 27 years before I retired and became the president of the Union.

No policeman that has done the job for an extended period of time will deny the fact that that first shot went exactly where Ronnie wanted it to go.

He took aim, leaned against the car, and fired a round across the street at a white male he saw, he thought attacking his friends, - Police and city workers were still looking for evidence.

Sunday morning in the 3600 block of West Fullerton, it was here that the 36-year-old patrolman stopped late Saturday night to break up a gang fight.

It was also here, he was shot.

- Well, we were in this wedding event from six o'clock at night until when it happened.

We were drinking all night long.

Everybody in the house, it was a party.

Probably 75-80 people were in the house, and it was a borderline Hispanic community and borderline, going the other way.

More Caucasian that way.

Probably two o'clock in the morning somebody was yelling, Hey, these guys are having problems down the street.

So I decided, okay, they're down there a long time.

It's been going on a while.

So I went to go outside and then down the street you could see a lot of people, I don't know, 50, 75 people and just running all 10 or 20 in this group and this group and wrestling or fighting.

So I figure be in that environment.

Somebody's gonna get hurt, something's gonna really happen in there.

So I'm gonna just shoot down there and I know it'll break 'em up.

Not knowing who was who in the crowd.

So I leaned against the car.

I shot four shots.

I remember how fast it was.

Everything happened in three seconds.

You couldn't tell who was who.

I did it, shot the gun, walked up through the house, walked out, and walked away and walked home.

And never thought anything about it.

In my mind, I knew I didn't shoot anybody.

I would've been running.

We went back and they had already taped off the section and cordoned it.

And the officer was saying, somebody shot a police officer.

And then this was the first time I'm like, whoa, it's too late.

It's already done.

- The shots were intentional.

He meant to shoot Terry Loftus.

He pointed the gun, leaned, and braced himself and fired a shot in that direction.

You don't brace yourself against the car if it's not intentional.

- Funeral mass was held at the Our Lady Mother of the Church, Catholic Church at 8701 West Leland Loftus was widely known by his friends and fellow police officers as a good guy, a guy who would stop to help people.

Terrence Loftus is survived by his wife Carol, his mother and his brother Tom, a Chicago fireman.

- Sadly, he paid the price on his way home from work trying to do the right thing.

He could have just kept driving that day, that first shot went exactly where Ronnie wanted it to go.

It killed Officer Terry Loftus.

It took him away from his friends and family.

A judge sentenced him to 200-plus years.

It was effectively life without parole.

That judge was trying to make a statement, you kill an officer, you are going to spend the rest of your life in prison.

We just lost two police officers in the last 60 damn days.

When does this stop?

What kind of message you think this is gonna send?

If you give parole to a police officer murderer, I get you have a responsibility to consider what he has done as far as rehabilitation.

But you don't just get to flip a switch one day.

I, I'm just gonna leave it at that.

I appreciate your time and attention in this case, and thank you.

- If it's appropriate, I'd like to offer a rebuttal at this point.

- Okay.

- Thank you.

- You have the floor.

- Thank you so much.

Members of the board, there's no question that if he were to be released, Ronnie Carrasquillo would not violate the conditions of his parole.

There's no question that he's rehabilitated.

Mr. Carrasquillo has spent his entire adult life doing everything that he can to make up for the thing that he did as an 18-year-old drunk child.

Behind me sits Mr. Carrasquillo's immense and loving family and his friends.

I think this board is very well aware of the support that he has in the community - Where there all the time.

We've gotta show them who we are.

I think it's important.

Yeah, I think it's very important.

Yeah.

People come in seasons to help our family.

Ronnie needs them.

Ronnie needs us.

Ronnie needs them.

We, we need to stick together because this is a very lonely road.

Yeah.

Yeah.

- Ronnie called me this morning and he said, oh, you're going.

He goes, you gotta log the miles.

You go back and forth.

And then he said, how many miles you've done for me and and how much emotional rollercoaster and emotion that you've expelled.

- Yeah.

My brothers and sisters, each one of 'em plays a role and each one of them pour love on me.

So heavy.

The, the love is just exponential.

It's just, that's rotated around me trying to help me.

- And there is an emotion that goes with it.

Sacrifice.

And sacrifice.

But it's tough.

It hurts and it doesn't end - If you don't have someone that's incarcerated in your life.

It's hard to understand.

- She stepped up in my life.

I had no technical skills of, of emails and computers.

I didn't know nothing, know nothing about that.

She did.

So for me to reach my story and try to get more people to help, she became that factor (phone rings) - Free call from Ronnie.

To accept this free call, press one.

You may start the conversation now - What's going on over there?

Good morning.

Yeah, everything's good.

How are you?

Just walking to the time, you know, - She's the hub of all the communications that get these people to go to Springfield.

Get these people to go to the courtrooms.

- Well, I told you that Allie's not feeling too good.

So I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't think so.

- We talk every day.

You know, everything.

Nothing's barred from speaking about with me and her.

Everything, every aspect of life.

Everything.

- My, gosh, I get, I actually get to talk during the conversation.

Usually you take the lead and you, you take up the 20 minutes.

I think I got to talk more than you today.

- Yeah, my brain, my brain's just, you know, thinking and thinking.

It takes a lot to communicate to a lot of people and organize them.

And it's, it's an energizer.

It's, I can keep going.

- You have a lot of people praying.

A lot of people praying.

Yeah.

Wow.

- The only question before this board truly is whether Mr. Carrasquillo's release would deprecate the seriousness of the offense and had Ronnie Carrasquillo intended to kill a Chicago police officer.

The answer to that question might be yes, but that is not what Ronnie Carrasquillo did.

It's not what he was charged with.

I think there are two things to note in this indictment.

The first thing is that in neither count is Mr. Carrasquillo charged with killing a Chicago police officer because the government did not believe and continues to not believe.

And there is no evidence that Mr. Carrasquillo knew that Officer Loftus was a Chicago police officer.

That doesn't mean that Mr. Carrasquillo did not commit first degree murder.

He did.

He's not looking for a pass.

He's looking for a sentence that appropriately reflects both what he did, and who he is now.

Ronnie's parole petition took about a month to compile, and it does every time.

The whole idea of this packet of information is to try to help the prisoner review board understand who Ronnie is, who he is as a person, not, not just a crime.

Right.

And so you can see just in the last year, he founded Hispanic Heritage Month.

He started a program called Breaking Point, which is an anti-gang mental health program.

He organized a whole bunch of events at Kewanee for folks who are religious.

Foundations for Life.

Unleash the Masterpiece... - I got into the church.

I've been ministering ever since in here.

- The Crossroad Bible Institute.

He took, - I became a disciplinarian to myself, educational wise, training wise, - The Institute for Prison Ministries.

- And I don't stop - Christ Prison Ministries.

- If I was to stay in the rational mind that I was as the 16, 17-year-old kid coming in prison, it's easy to lock into the hate.

It's all around me.

I was living in it, it's a swimming pool of hate.

Where I came to the conclusion I gotta fix me.

You know what I mean?

I had to work on me.

It was 1968.

I was 10 years old.

We grew up in a pretty good environment, but for some reason, my father purchased a house in the Humboldt Park area.

I grew up the first 10 years not knowing what it meant to be Puerto Rican.

So when I moved into the Humboldt Park area, people would say, you shouldn't come to this school.

You're Puerto Rican.

And I'd go home Hey moms, what's, what's that?

- At that time back, let me see, I would say 50 some years ago, this was a white neighborhood.

So there were Italians and different white ethnic groups.

They would gang up on the Hispanics.

We were getting beat up every day.

We lived right here.

My mother would clean the sidewalks in the summer till nine o'clock at night.

If you're not home after it gets dark, you get beat with a, with a spoon.

'cause she was really that loving to her children.

And Ronnie was the spoiled brat.

He got to get away with everything.

- My mother was a very loving mother, very structured.

You had to be sitting down at four o'clock to eat.

She just did everything, you know, everything to care for us.

My father was not around.

He created a second family.

He, he married again.

We rarely seen him.

So my mother depended on the Chicago Board of Education system to basically raise us.

So she put us in every park district program.

There was baseball, football.

She had no idea.

Starting 12, 13 years old, going into first year of high school, we were latching more onto the street.

- This is the school yard.

We hung here.

And then gangs would come by, start shooting at us in the schoolyard.

And it just made us get into a factor of turning into a gang to protect each other, because it was Hispanics against whites at that time.

At 12 years old, you witness a girl die in your arms.

And those are the things that you never think that children do.

Experience funerals.

- A a girlfriend of mine, I carried into the hospital, they shot her in the head.

She passed away.

Another month or two later, another girlfriend, and five other six people shot down, juveniles.

And I carried 'em into the hospital Christmas night.

So I'm seeing all this, and that drew me into the gang life more, then I spent more time, instead of going home, the gang became my family.

We felt safe in that playground.

That was our mental security place.

- Being in a playground.

We didn't have a family life.

We didn't have a child life.

My father didn't raise us or nothing.

He would come around once a week, buy us a beef sandwich, give us $5 each and say be good.

And that was - The extent of our relationship for, for a long time until my mother passed away.

You know, I was in school that day, and some teacher came and said, I wanna talk to you, in the principal's office, or whatever.

I went down there and they said, you have to go to this hospital.

Your mother's in the hospital.

So from seeing her one day and the next day it was over with, so it was that fast.

So being 15 years old, it don't compute.

- And our world just changed.

That's how we ended up being with my dad.

Only for that reason.

This is where we lived with my father.

He lived in the front right here, this white house right here.

And we lived back here till this house burned down.

And then he put us in the basement till they found us an apartment.

- I basically became his father.

And I didn't do a good job with it.

I didn't have the skills to, you know, to train somebody to be a son or raise him up.

I, I don't take shame or fault, like, but I recognize what I did to my, my younger brother.

You know, we would end up staying in the street 24 hours a day, two days at a time.

We'd run away right back to where we felt safe in that playground.

I felt I was doing right by going, securing that environment.

And it eventually brought me to this prison, brought me to my prison life - Before I got incarcerated.

Before he got incarcerated.

Ronnie's group and my group, we always, you know, we was rivals with one another.

Oh yeah, right this area right here in this field.

There was like 30 of 'em, maybe like 30 of us.

And we met up all through right here and just kicked each other's ass.

And ever since that fight, we, we just been at each other, you know, we always been at each other.

I never, I I didn't get to know him until 1984, until I ran into him in Stateville, you know, prison.

The prison setting's a small setting.

So everybody knows everything.

Everybody knows what's going on.

So I knew he was there.

When he first approached me, I was getting on my defense.

I was like, okay, this guy about to pull it.

I thought he was gonna come at me, you know, that he was gonna be aggressive, you know.

And, and the first thing he did was put his hand out.

He go, what's up brother?

And I looked at it to make sure there was nothing in it.

But then he started talking to me about Latino awareness and about Latino unity and how we was making mistakes out there.

And, and it's about bringing our people together and bringing programs in here and, and do cultural programs.

And I'm looking at him and I said, like, what are you even talking about my man?

- You had different street gangs in jail.

And I, I would go between them and say hey this has to stop.

We damaged our society, our families, traumatized, you know, for years and years.

A lot of people, - I I, you know, I was a broken kid though.

And you know, I, you know, my brother died in my arms squeezing my thumb when I was 16.

So my mindset was a certain way, you know, maybe he realized that I needed help, that I needed healing.

And he had that wisdom to see that.

And before I knew it, a light started turning on inside of me.

Man, it started to make sense to me.

- Mr. Carrasquillo has spent the last 46 years investing in other incarcerated people and himself trying to build relationships with law enforcement officers, with police officers, with crime victims.

He's now mentoring, incarcerated juveniles through the Department of Juvenile Justice to help ensure that other young people don't make the mistake that he made.

Nothing here has flipped on a dime.

Mr. Carrasquillo did shoot that firearm.

And in direct rebuttal to Mr. Catanzara's statements that, that, that that first shot was accurate.

We have an affidavit, which I assume you've all seen from John, John Nixon.

- We received it.

Thank you.

- Indicating that a 32 caliber firearm is actually fairly difficult to fire accurately, especially at 133 yards.

- Ms. Sobel, I'm going to stop you.

I've been indulging you, but we have this information in the file.

It's been passed out to everyone.

I'm, we have that information.

Everyone's had the time to review it.

- I'm, I'm glad to hear that the board has had time to review it.

And I appreciate the care that you have given this case.

I raise it in oppos.. in, in response to Mr. Catanzara's comment that that first shot was that it hit its mark.

What's so striking about Ronnie's case, is a couple of years ago, the Cook County State's attorney's office, the prosecutor agreed that Ronnie should come home and dropped their objection to his release on parole.

'cause as Mr. Breen will testify, the sentence - Ma'am I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm not gonna permit Mr. Breen to give additional testimony.

It's not why we're here today.

- The body that is adversarial to Ronnie's release is the prisoner review board.

- I don't wanna get involved in the back and forth, but that, I mean, once again, I wanna correct that.

I understood your... - And so when I've appeared before the board on his case these last two years, I'm not arguing with the prosecutor - Now.

I don't know how dark it was there... - I'm arguing with the decision maker.

It's a really bizarre position to be in.

- This is not a courtroom.

We're not judges.

This is technically a panel of civilians.

And we're free to determine for ourselves what we think is evidentiary.

- I really think the prisoner should be there.

You're dealing with his life.

Ask him the questions.

Every single board member in there needs 10 minutes with Ronnie.

That's it.

Just 10 minutes.

They can see who he is.

They always make him out to be a monster.

And he is everything opposite.

My relationship with Ronnie has grown through visits because my parents took me into the prisons at the age of maybe eight or nine.

- My father moved them to another area, another township.

Basically, you don't have a brother or don't mention that, you know, to protect them.

That went on for years.

- As I got older, he started writing me letters.

And then we continued our visits.

And then my teenagers came.

You know, as a teenager, everyone has, well, I had issues with my parents.

So who did I go to?

Ronnie.

He was the one that always called.

And I would run to my room and I told him all my things.

I cried.

I yelled, I screamed.

And he was always there for me, always there for me.

- My sister Deyra, my other Roxanna, just to miss 'em, you know, miss 'em that much.

I said, man, I gotta be in here.

I can't be with 'em.

I tattoo their names on me.

- And now as an adult, I look at Ronnie and he's like, he is my best friend.

He's, he is my everything - (singing) Living he loved me.

Dying he saved me.

Buried He carried my sins far away.

- Oh, glorious day - Oh, glorious day.

Glory to God.

Thank you Jesus.

Yeah.

- I'll tell you a little story.

I don't have a lot of time.

So in 1976, my brother did a crime and he was sentenced to two to 600 years.

A lot of you'll be shocked by that.

I never shared my brother's story.

- Hmm.

- My parents always made us keep quiet about Ronnie.

'cause it was embarrassing.

And I have so many friends to this day that were my high school friends that I never told anything to.

And it wasn't until I started coming to RTO that I realized that there were other people like me.

And there were other people that had people that were incarcerated.

And it was okay.

It was okay to, it was okay to have someone in your life or in your family that made mistakes.

So for that, I just wanna say thank you.

We love you.

Thank you.

- Bring him home.

Lord Jesus, bring him home to us.

We praise you for his... - When it dawned on me, what I caused...

The, the drama and the trauma that I bring onto all these people... - In the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

- The financial burden of the justice system coming on my family that was already discombobulated.

It was already dysfunctional.

So that's a, that's another weight I gotta walk with every day.

After my conviction We didn't have no money for lawyers, the family wise.

So we had a public defender for the appeal, being that we lost that.

And my father then tried to hire an attorney.

I told him, Hey daddy, I'm going to a parole board.

Stop buying attorneys.

Stop doing that.

And I, I put my trust in the parole board.

- Please take roll.

A yes vote is to grant parole.

- 1985 was my first parole hearing and I was denied.

That was year after year after year.

- Carrasquillo fails to receive the sufficient votes for parole.

- I had my first vote in the year 2000.

George Montez, Jorge Montez became the chairman.

First person ever to vote for me.

- I remember voting against him multiple times because he was a classic in my mind, the classic of cop killer.

The case came up and it was assigned to the former sheriff of DuPage County.

He was a gun expert.

And he said there was no way in his ex, given his expertise, that a kid that age handling a gun of this kind at that hour of the night, like two in the morning, shooting into a crowd, could aim from the distance that he aimed and would've intentionally wanted to kill this police officer.

Absolutely not.

Would somebody be able to use that caliber of a pistol shoot into the intersection that far away, aim at an officer and be that good.

Not even a real professional marksman would probably - Be that good.

- And so that convinced me.

After that, I started voting for him consistently.

- He became my vote and started from there.

And then he, I guess, talked to other people.

- When I first joined the board, we were paroling very, very few people.

So I would say at, in the first few years, I didn't see much sense of his ability to ever get outta prison.

But things changed.

I thought he was well-spoken, he was reserved.

He'd done a lot to try and prepare himself for release.

He'd taken advantage of the programming that was offered.

And some of the family, I think were going to provide a very good home for him that made it much easier to support him.

I voted yes, - I supported him.

Then three people voted, then it was a fourth person.

So I thought I was progressing.

I thought there's light at the end of the tunnel.

- Mr. Carrasquillo started gaining more favor.

It crept up to the point where we were one vote shy - In 2008, I had the majority of the board members at the hearing.

But they have a policy they created in 1985 that says, I need the majority of the board.

So if a board member doesn't show up for work that day, they count that vote against me.

- And that is the time when we had the former chairman flip- flop and did not give his vote.

And that's why Ronnie didn't get out.

He had been advocating for Mr. Carrasquillo and then mysteriously dropped out.

- I, what changed my view on that was the possibility of, of his gang activity.

Things about his conduct that were not previously known to me, - There is information that the board has discussed in the past.

Information that's, that we've gotten from the Department of Corrections over the years that involved the issue of gang membership that is not something that we could discuss in open session.

So we're gonna go to closed executive session.

- Our board at that time was able to read documents from the Department of Corrections that are confidential and not shared with anybody.

Documents from the Chicago Police Department.

Interviews with confidential informants in the Department of Corrections.

And that certainly had influence on me.

- The police department and the IDOC's Internal Affairs got together.

They put out a, an investigative report of all these confidential informants to show the board I was still gang active.

It's unusual to do that for you to reinvestigate me to use taxpayers' money just to prove that I'm a gang leader and all that.

I have a bachelor's degree in theological studies.

I graduated four bible colleges.

What gang member does that for what purpose would I do that if I'm gonna still run a street gang?

- Mr. Carrasquillo had done everything he could in prison.

He was very careful.

Gang chiefs almost never get disciplinary reports in prison.

They're too cautious.

They have other people do the work for 'em.

Was that the case for Mr. Carrasquillo?

I don't know.

Possibly.

- It's just falsified information.

Documentation through official channels.

So as you drive up in the neighborhood, you can just grab them, hey, you know this guy, you know, and if you read that, half of 'em say, I don't know that, I don't know him.

They actually brought a person saying he was my family member to the parole board and he's no relations to me at all, saying that he's my nephew and I gave him this much territory to run and all that.

My family said we don't have no family member that name, who's he talking about?

- There was enough evidence to satisfy my belief that his gang involvement was more substantial than he would ever admit.

- You go to the PRB board they're mostly elderly people, and when you show them physical papers.

He's still doing that?

And all these guys said that?

It looks real.

So if they were gonna vote for me, not now.

So in their minds, and in even my family's mind, some of 'em believed the reports that the officers are not gonna lie.

The system's not gonna lie.

They're the sys... Oh yes, they will.

I needed one vote.

So for the officers' standpoint of view, they had, we gotta stop this.

- So the Fraternal Order of Police, every time Ronnie has a parole hearing organizes a contingent of police officers to come and object to his release.

These are officers who do not know Ronnie.

In fact, by and large, many of those officers were not alive when this crime happened and have absolutely no connection to Officer Loftus.

The Prisoner Review Board allowed them to register as interested parties almost as if they were the victims.

And that special status has remained constant ever since.

- We had a very interesting conversation in closed session.

Some of that involved the issue of gang membership that I, I want those points to be made in open session.

- What was just shared is the concern of affiliation when it comes to community safety.

If he continues with his affiliation external to the institution.

- I will simply state that.

I know there has been a lot of question as to whether Mr. Carrasquillo has sincerely renounced his gang membership.

I do understand it's been consistently reported that he did officially renounce in 1993.

Again, I know that leaves a lot of question in people's minds as far as the severity of it, but I thought this was all important context.

- I have a question regarding whether Mr. Carrasquillo made statements acknowledging that he believed he had killed a quote pig.

- I, I would just like to say when you look at the information and he didn't know supposedly that he shot a police officer, but yet after the shooting, he goes to his friends and said, I shot a pig.

To me determines that he knew that Mr. Loftus was a police officer.

- Yeah, if I can just respond to that.

I think there is some reason to potentially question whether he stated that.

I also think it's important to kind of distinguish teenage street bravado from sincere statements of what, what would an individual who is street involved, 18 years old, have said upon receiving that news surrounded by his street involved friends, - The case would come up, he's a cop killer.

You got all these cops all around you and they were breathing down, literally down your neck.

A lot of decisions were made by board members on the basis of the pressure they were feeling.

And it would always be a very automatic.

No.

So every vote that I cast, especially as a chairman, and that's exactly why I'm not chairman anymore.

Because my votes were watched.

We would hear from legislators who, who took offense at some of the votes we took.

- Mr. Secretary, read the bill.

House Bill 2376 offered by Senator Fine.

And that concerning safety.

House Bill 2380 offered by Senator... - The politics of this situation is to become a parole board member.

The governor appoints 'em on the board and then they're confirmed into that seat by the Senate body.

The way the political structure goes, you can have 10 members on the board and next year they remove 'em all.

Put another 10 and you just lose everything.

So there's no, nothing stationary.

- The parole board, who's on it, who do they release, It's a lightning rod and it is the third rail, if you will, in every election.

Not only locally, even, even nationally.

- Bush and Dukakis on crime.

- Maybe if you're old enough to recall the George Bush campaign against Dukakis He allowed first degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison.

One was Willie Horton who murdered a boy in a robbery, stabbing him 19 times.

- And that was one of the reasons why he lost - Weekend prison passes Dukakis on crime.

- So inevitably it's going to be a, a political football every election year.

- You know, there are a couple things that the general public just will not allow.

And one of them is endangering public safety.

Because we all want our children to be safe.

We all wanna lay our heads down at night and, and hope that no one's gonna try to break into your house.

Right?

Or murder you.

I think real town America, which is Murphysboro, believes in rehabilitation.

But I also believe in keeping our community safe.

Great place to live.

Murphysboro, it's a nice town.

We all help each other and do things together.

We have a car show, they'll have hot dogs, cotton candy, snow cones.

It's free.

We also host Apple Festival.

It's been going on now for over 75 years.

Lots of correctional employees in this town because in or around the 58th Senate district, we have seven prisons.

So it's a kind of an important part of the economic makeup of our area.

I mean, it's a lot of employers.

There are individuals who cannot be rehabilitated.

I really believe that.

And one of the things that you just don't release people for is killing police officers.

That person is an individual in my mind, who will kill anyone.

- You have these political people in office.

They said, we want harsher laws and lengthier times it fit right in it that they were walking me out of my natural life.

We went through a, you could say a spasm of that for 20, 30 years.

- Power to the people, power to the people, Looking at the video.

And you can see that this man shot Laquan McDonald 16 times in cold blood, sent this city up into flames.

The city has been shaken up - Specific to Chicago.

There was a very palpable change in the perception of policing with the Laquan McDonald murder.

Nobody can deny that.

You could say the same thing about 2020 with George Floyd's murder and the anti-police sentiment that swept across this country and the emotions, it invoked - George Floyd.

Say his name.

George Floyd, Say his name.

George Floyd.

- Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton and I brought our state's prison population down by about 25% since the beginning of this - Pandemic.

It permeated every single aspect of government, including the parole board.

- The first case is that in Mr. Ronnie Carrasquillo - The review board members who had been appointed by Governor Pritzker fit into the framework of what his political beliefs were, which is very soft on crime, I believe very pro criminal.

We had a member of the Prisoner Review Board who was locked up himself.

- In January, I get a call and I look at my number.

It's a 217 area code.

I think it's a bill collector insurance company, whatever.

So you know how most people, when they don't wanna talk to a collector, they put the phone like away.

I go, yeah.

Hello, is this, I'm Lieutenant Governor Stratton, and I just wanted to let you know that you are a nominee to sit at the prisoner review board.

And I said, whoa.

- When I first heard that his name was appointed to the Prisoner Review Board, I ran the yard and I I just said, God, I see you, you know, we grew up in, in the streets, in the bad life together.

We came in jail together and transformed our lives in the same aspects together.

We've been helping each other throughout.

You know, it's a good thing - There are persons present opposed to parole for Mr. Carrasquillo.

- When I thought of Prisoner Review, I just thought of old fat white guys, you know, board members telling you 'no' - I mean, you have ex-cops that sit there.

You have ex state attorneys, you know, I'm sure you had ex judges that sit there.

Why not have a returning citizen that has successfully reintegrated and contributed to society?

Why not have these individuals part of this process?

I went to, when I went to Menard, I ran into Gaylords that was mixed.

But in the streets I never did, - He he clearly took aim at his target.

There's no other way you make that shot from that far away.

It isn't a lucky strike.

- It was like we was retrying the case all over again - And fired a round.

- Even one of the board members went to the actual site where that happened to get a visual, a direction of the bullet to see if it was intentional, if it was this or that.

Like a case, like a, like a states attorney or an attorney would in a trial case.

And I'm here.

I said, damn, it seems like we're retrying this case.

- Cop killers should stay in prison forever, period.

- When you're in the Prisoner Review Board, you're not there to judge this case.

You're there to judge the individual, what he's done.

Is he ready?

Has he changed?

Has he rehabilitated himself?

I already knew that Ronnie was, I knew that he was ready to come home.

I know that he was a good candidate for parole.

- The men and women of the Chicago Police Department are literally under attack more than ever before.

The morale has been shattered.

Like nobody cares when one of ours dies or one of their murderers gets let out.

It's no big deal.

You can stop this right now.

Do not grant parole.

I beg of you.

Thank you.

- This case tears me apart in so many different ways.

I see folks that every day are out there doing something that I can't do.

And I got to meet Ronnie and meet his family, and I see folks that have stood by him and helped him become something that maybe at 18 no one ever thought he could.

And this is tough.

I - More times than not, it's the liberal minds that want to give parole, parole, parole.

Everything's about emotion and sympathy and trying to, you know, give people the benefit of the doubt, except for the officers.

- Thank you.

The question is, shall parole be granted to Mr. Ronnie Carrasquillo?

A yes vote is to grant, please take the roll - Mr. James?

- There's no wrong vote, Mr. James.

Yes.

I I, I can tell you we were sitting kind of tightly in our chairs, me and Frank.

We really thought, oh damn.

As the sentiment and the pendulum started swinging, it really kind of was a all out effort to, to right the ship, so to speak, and get more balance back at that parole board.

So we reached out to both sides of the legislature down in Springfield and said, this is an issue that matters to the FOP.

We'd like to talk to you about it.

- We heard from people from all over law enforcement, I'm in a minority party, we don't have enough numbers to stop something.

So systematically the three Republicans who were on executive appointments committee started trying to make the general public aware of who was being released from prison and why - The handful of Senate Republicans rather unhappy with the number of controversial releases of five convicted murderers.

Two of them guilty of killing police officers.

- Yeah.

Senate Republicans have criticized the governor's appointees.

They're saying votes that those members have taken, show the governor is soft on crime.

- Republicans seizing the issue in a political season where crime and safety are the number one concerns of voters.

- For decades, Jean had the support of governors of both parties to keep her uncle's killer behind bars.

Until JB Pritzker, - My message to the governor would - Be, shame on you.

The Prisoner Review Board became the political football.

They became the scapegoat for all of the sort of societal challenges that Illinois was facing during COVID, mind you.

They're an easy target for someone who wants to challenge a political opponent for being too quote-unquote soft on crime.

- Each of these individuals should come before the committee so that we can ask them specific questions.

- Okay.

For the Prisoner Review Board, we're going to go to Oreal James appointment message 1 0 2 1 0 9.

- So I would repeat a question that I asked a, a, a Previous candidate for this position.

And that would be what crime would, could someone commit that would be reason enough to warrant life in prison and that they would not be released?

- If I were to say that I would never vote for something, then there is no reason for me to have a hearing.

- In 2018, you said that you could not support parole for an individual who would shoot at a police officer.

You have subsequently voted to release at least seven people who've killed police officers.

- Senator Plummer, I understand that you wanna paint a picture with certain senses and certain statements.

So I I'm unable to answer your question because you, you you have already made up your mind on this statement.

- Thank you.

And we will move on to our next appointment.

- Many heads rolled and some people didn't even bother to go forward with the whole process of confirmation 'cause they knew they wouldn't make it.

The Senate rejects the nomination.

- That's the strength of this kind of lobbying that goes on behind the scenes with, with the parole board.

- They removed me.

It just, it was a political thing, man.

It's, it's all, it was, it was a political piece for such an important responsibility for it to lay on a, for it to be in the shadow of a political piece is, it's f'd up man.

It's f'd up.

- Well, I can't have a victory dance because we still have people who are being released.

Presently, I have no particular red flags going up.

- We're thankful that, you know, the legislature heard our complaints and there was definitely changes that were made.

I'm not saying that we were solely responsible for the changes made, but, you know, it definitely made a difference.

And the chairman now has a law enforcement background.

We'd like to think we have more of a fair board at this point.

- The Senate has gutted the Prisoner Review Board.

Everyone who's ever voted for Ronnie has been removed.

Now we have a Prisoner Review Board primarily made up of people who very rarely, if ever, vote for release.

- I think most of you who've heard me speak on this before are probably guessing correctly that I, I'm not in favor of this petition personally.

The petition this year says Ronnie has always taken full responsibility for his actions.

He's spent the last 45 years not only accepting that responsibility, but trying to be a force for good.

Okay.

I think that's absurd.

I'm sorry.

Regarding his credibility.

And this is the reason why, when I see all these good things that he's done and all this programming, I wonder whether or not, I mean, honestly, I wonder whether or not this is a person who's made this reform, he's made this change in his life.

Or if he's just smart enough to know he's gotta present a totally different face if he ever expects to get out of prison.

So the real question for me is, do I believe all the good that I've heard about Ronnie Carrasquillo is now the, the function of a person who's made this change in his life?

It could be.

I can't say that it's not, even if it's true, I still believe he murdered a Chicago Police officer.

I believe that.

And I'm having real difficulty getting past it.

So I cannot bring myself to support the petition.

- Thank you.

I think that concludes our comment.

- Call the roll please.

On the motion for deny.

- Ms. Shoffner?

- Yes.

- Ms. Globokar?

- No.

- Mr. Grubbs?

- Yes.

- Mr. Coates?

- Yes.

- Mr. Heaton.

- Every parole hearing we say the same thing.

Did I intend, did I see him?

Did I know what I did?

In, in my spirit I know, I never intended that.

- The motion has been made to deny, that motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Call the next case.

- I've never come out of being, not sorry.

I'm sorry for what I've done.

The life that I walked, I fired the gun that caused this Officer Loftus his life.

As a person, that's who he was.

You know, helping people.

You know, that's what, that's what he done.

So he, in the incident this happened, he was helping people.

You know, he got, he, he came out of his car in the middle of a bad situation to help people.

And my action took that away from him in an instant from him and his family.

So when people speak of remorse, I gotta, I live with that every day that I can't give it back.

I can't speak to him.

I can't do that.

So they say, how can you prove remorse?

And I say, by living this way, that that person in me, I had to, I had to get rid of that person in me.

Time to go, see you another day.

Can't change any anything of yesterday.

God says, I'm forgive you for that.

And I go forward.

So it's, what can I do now?

- So you needed seven out of nine?

Yeah.

That's so dumb.

Two people that have never heard the case and that man that, that they make up the rules as they go.

How is that fair?

- Oh my God.

It wasn't even close anyway.

It ain't never gonna change.

This is the worst.

This is the worst - It's been.

You know, they already knew.

They all made up their mind.

- They got rid of the whole board to create this group.

- They make up the rules along the way - You know what we should do?

- No, listen to me.

If they're getting paid $80,000 a year, the public don't know.

Okay, well the public don't know how corrupt this is We didn't have a, that wasn't a hearing.

- That was biased - Yeah.

- We walked into that hearing knowing we were gonna lose.

We did.

I think that if we're talking about the incarcerated person, we're having the right conversation.

And if we're talking about a series of events that happened decades in the past, we're having the wrong conversation.

The fact that the Prisoner Review Board was not interested in talking about Ronnie was a pretty clear signal to me that he wasn't gonna be released.

- It's okay.

I'll talk to you soon.

- Talk to you another time.

- Okay.

- Okay, bye.

Later.

- Ronnie just called to find out what the outcome of the hearing was.

He, he doesn't have much emotion, you know, he doesn't, he doesn't say anything.

He never does.

He'll just go back and he'll pray a little bit.

Go back to his Bible and he'll be fine.

- What about you?

- I'm okay.

I believe in God.

Ronnie's time is coming.

It just wasn't today.

But his time is coming.

(party sounds and chatter) - How are you?

- Good.

Good.

Good.

You look nice.

I like this.

You remind me of my father.

- I always remember my father.

Were you Max?

Yeah.

Jesse, this is Max.

He, you, you remember he was on the parole board - Supporting the family, supporting Ronnie, waiting for this brother to come home where he needs to be.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you.

- So if Jenny, Jennifer, and Chuck and Michael could come up.

(applause) We can't be more honored than to have you on our team.

Charles, you brought us this far.

Jenny, we can't even say enough about you.

The way you handle that parole board.

That's a mean, sometimes a mean group of people to go up against.

But she's always so positive.

We really thank you.

From the bottom of our hearts.

We're gonna ask you if you could update the, the group.

- Yeah, yeah.

Go ahead.

- Deyra has said she can't thank the lawyers enough.

But I'll tell you the real heroes in Ronnie's case, are Ronnie and his family.

Yes.

- Yeah.

Bravo.

(applause) - So here's an update on the case.

For any of you who's ever been to one of Ronnie's parole hearings, you'll know that that's a sham.

Well, we're done with the parole board.

We were back in the appellate court to prove that Ronnie's original sentencing hearing back in 1977 was unconstitutional.

Ronnie had an immature brain.

He, his brain was like a juvenile.

The judge never considered Ronnie's youth and its attendant characteristics, which is what the constitution requires.

And so we were able to convince the appellate court that Ronnie gets a new sentencing hearing.

(applause) The slate is wiped clean.

So everybody keep, keep praying for Ronnie.

It's not over.

We may have won the latest battle, but we haven't won the war yet.

So hope.

Hope.

We always have hope.

- Yeah.

Always.

- When you come out and say that my brain was not the stage of an 18-year-old because of different traumas, different things in life.

It's a reality.

I was 18 and you think you're all that.

And I wasn't.

I I got lost somewhere in a couple years of time.

Finally, that reality, my truth of my life came to be the fact on the table.

It's, it's mind boggling, you know?

Hmm.

- Oh Jenny, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

- My sister.

She said, what do you wanna do when you go home?

What's the first thing you wanna do?

I wanna go in your backyard and sit and just say, you know, it's over.

And I just wait, bide my time.

Just keep praying.

Just keep praying.

(wind chimes) (street sounds) (indistinct chatter) everyone is asking for time served.

Time served for Ronnie would mean 47 years.

47 years in prison.

The judge, you know, he's the judge.

He has the final authority and he has absolutely the power to impose whatever sentence he deems appropriate.

- I dream about the day he comes home.

Yes.

I've thought about it.

I think about it all the time.

- (Ronnie) Sitting in the bullpen.

More people I guess were coming and coming in the courtroom.

And as one guy went in to hear his case came back out, he was telling everybody that courtroom is packed.

I've never seen a courtroom full of people.

Something's going on.

They took me into the courtroom, sat down at the table, and then I was just scanning the courtroom, who was there, you know, and I seen, you know, Eric, my brother, Sister Janet, all these different people, parole board members who voted for my parole.

The judge let the representative for the Fraternal Order of Police, let him speak.

He went into his, you know, I should stay there forever, don't deserve anything.

And all that went on and on.

So the judge just went into, everybody was saying how, how bad I was, not reformed.

I was the bad guy still.

So he said he, he heard this over and over, but that he was recognizing my accolades, my, my certificates, and my work in the prison system.

So he said, I'm gonna recognize that you have worked and that you are not that same person.

He finally concluded, I'm gonna sentence you to 46 years and 11 months.

So when he said it, 46 years, 11 months, I knew right there.

I said, you know, I'm going home.

It's over.

(cheeering) (cheering) - 50 years, 50 years!

- For 40 something years They were sending me money, paying lawyer fees, suffering through every hearing.

You know, just, they constantly supported me.

They finally got their relief.

- We're overwhelmed, we're very happy.

Justice was finally served.

- And you know, one of the things the judges talked about was that, that he was 18 at the time and was convinced that he's a changed person.

Like, what's your reaction to that?

- I've been asked that question many times during the years, and I just answer back as, who were you when you were 18 years old?

I don't remember a lot of things that I did when I was 18 years old.

And I could, if I could go back, I'm 54.

If I could go back to when I was 18 years old, I'd certainly do a lot of things differently myself.

- (Jennifer Soble) Ronnie's case is a really interesting confluence of politics and law and sort of the morality of keeping an incarcerated person in prison for such a long time.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

- Didn't even stick around for the final sentences out of his mouth.

It was very clear where he was going with it.

We walked out.

Disgusting.

(uplifting music) - We gotta put a bunch of hearts.

Yeah.

Just put we love you.

- Wow.

- There you go.

I think we have it the wrong way, but it's okay.

Oh yeah.

There you go.

Yay.

Welcome home.

Welcome home.

- We've only waited 47 years.

I can't wait to just hug him.

Oh my gosh.

I wish I was a fly on the wall right now watching Ronnie, what he is doing.

I can't even imagine what it's like when you're in the visiting rooms.

You know, you're not allowed to.

You can have a one second hug.

You know, like, like I just wanna embrace him.

I'm really excited.

I I can't even, I'm overwhelmed.

Yeah.

(emotional music building) - Okay.

Don't get excited Ronnie.

You got a crowd out here, but you'll be fine.

Okay?

I love you.

Okay?

God bless you.

Five minutes.

He'll be out.

Five minutes.

Five minutes.

That's him.

That's him.

Hallelujah.

Ronnie, we love you.

Oh - My God.

God.

Oh my God.

(cheering and screaming) I'm so excited.

Yes!

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

(crying) Oh, I can't believe it.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music) - Ronnie, these are all phones we're holding.

- Oh, these are phones?

- I got you.

I'm taking that paperwork out of your hands right now.

- Hallelujah!

- On, hold on.

Hallelujah, baby!

What's up?

(laughter) (laughter) (indistinct chatter) Come on guys.

Come on.

(cheeering) - Yes sir.

Here we go.

Everybody want to see me.

Thank you Lord Jesus.

Thank you God.

That's the name of the game.

- What do you want to do now that you're out, Ronnie?

- Help people live.

Keep 'em in joy.

Yeah.

- You know, after everybody goes through a lot of traumas and trials.

Yeah.

Learn to overcome them.

Yeah.

That's just the life I've been living.

Okay.

Thank you guys very much.

See you another day.

Alright.

Okay, good night.

- Ronnie, this... - This is Pac Man, Ronnie - Never played Pac Man?

So basically if you want to play, use this.

- Yeah.

- And don't let the ghost get you.

- Who's the ghost?

- These are the ghosts.

You gotta move around.

But when they're, when they're colored, you can't, you gotta run, no, see?

- He got me.

Huh?

- He did get you.

- Hey man, you sit here and do this all day.

Oh, he got me again.

I got whooped on.

(party sounds and chatter) - (Ronnie) Every day it's a learning process.

You know, even though my family's my family, I haven't been around them to know 'em in that regard.

I knew them from a telephone.

I knew them from every month a visit or every six months a visit.

So to live around them, to be around them, to watch 'em eat.

How they put the fork down or how they lift up their knife or it's the small things that you don't know.

Oh, this one likes a lot of ketchup.

That's a lot of ketchup you're putting there.

Or man, this one puts a lot of pepper.

Wow.

What are you doing?

Now I'm getting to know them personally.

(wind chimes) (emotional music) I'm, I'm not a not guilty person.

I'm a guilty person.

And that's the bottom line to my action, I sinned.

In the eyes of God, scripture wouldn't be scripture if there was no forgiveness.

That's what Jesus did.

He was the master restorer.

You know, something was wrong, have mercy give grace.

The Prisoner Review Board had their intention of my death of incarceration, I believe, and another door was opened through the grace of God.

(emotional music) - Major funding for In Their Hands is provided by Vital Projects Fund with additional funding from the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation, Leonard C. Goodman, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Illinois Humanities, And William and Irene Beck.