{"id":923269,"date":"2021-10-26T05:14:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T09:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=923269"},"modified":"2021-10-26T05:14:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T09:14:19","slug":"mcauliffes-parole-board-freed-career-criminal-who-later-robbed-family-at-knifepoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mcauliffes-parole-board-freed-career-criminal-who-later-robbed-family-at-knifepoint\/","title":{"rendered":"McAuliffe\u2019s Parole Board Freed Career Criminal Who Later Robbed Family at Knifepoint"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmcauliffes-parole-board-freed-career-criminal-who-later-robbed-family-at-knifepoint%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=923269&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"29.506493506494\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">McAuliffe: Not &#8216;bothered&#8217; by the possibility of a parolee committing a crime while out of prison<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1333763330_736x514-1.jpg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1333763330_736x514.jpg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1333763330_736x514-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1333763330_736x514-703x491.jpg 703w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tVirginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/collin-anderson\/\" title=\"Posts by Collin Anderson\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Collin Anderson<\/a> \u2022 October 26, 2021 5:00 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"129.36253630203\">\n<p><span>In Terry McAuliffe&#8217;s final year as governor, the Virginia Democrat&#8217;s parole board released a violent offender who later attempted to rob a woman and her kids at knifepoint in their own home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In November 2017, the Virginia Parole Board\u2014led by McAuliffe&#8217;s appointed chairwoman, Adrianne Bennett\u2014<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vpb.virginia.gov\/files\/1143\/vpb-decisions-dec17.pdf\"><span>released<\/span><\/a><span> 44-year-old career criminal Karim Aziz Muhammad, who was serving a life sentence for armed robbery. While McAuliffe has dismissed concerns that paroled offenders could go on to commit more illegal acts, Muhammad soon <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtvr.com\/news\/local-news\/man-released-on-parole-despite-life-sentence-now-charged-with-multiple-crimes\"><span>returned<\/span><\/a><span> to a &#8220;life of crime,&#8221; according to police.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Muhammad went back to prison after he robbed an eastern Virginia grocery store in April 2020. But he quickly secured bail, and just two months later, he broke into a woman&#8217;s home\u2014where children were present\u2014while armed with a knife. After demanding cash and other valuables, Muhammad fled the home, leading police on a car chase that ended when he crashed into a state trooper&#8217;s vehicle and assaulted an officer. Muhammad&#8217;s own child was also in the car during the chase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The ordeal exemplifies how McAuliffe\u2014who is running for a second term as governor against Republican Glenn Youngkin\u2014transformed Virginia&#8217;s parole board. In 2016, the board denied Muhammad&#8217;s release due to the criminal&#8217;s &#8220;history of violence.&#8221; Months later, however, McAuliffe <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/roanoke.com\/news\/politics\/mcauliffe-replaces-parole-board-chairwoman-in-effort-to-speed-reforms\/article_68a52f64-c97b-52b8-99fd-b5b3181bd83f.html\"><span>replaced<\/span><\/a><span> the board&#8217;s chair with Bennett, citing his desire to &#8220;make sure that we are moving expeditiously on these parole hearings.&#8221; Bennett went on to brag to a fellow board employee that she would &#8220;wave that wand of power&#8221; and &#8220;release anyone you say to release,&#8221; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtvr.com\/news\/local-news\/cbs-6-obtains-internal-email-showing-virginia-parole-board-deliberations\"><span>leaked emails<\/span><\/a><span> show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Despite Muhammad&#8217;s violent string of crimes following his release, McAuliffe has defended his handling of the parole board. During a December <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tN8PYczC8A4\"><span>roundtable<\/span><\/a><span>, he said he was never &#8220;bothered&#8221; by the possibility of a parolee committing a crime while out of prison.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;And I&#8217;ll be honest with you, when you&#8217;re sitting there as a governor or politician, your staff doesn&#8217;t want you to do any of this,&#8221; McAuliffe said on releasing criminals from prison. &#8220;The staff, rightfully, always wants to protect you, and if someone gets out and does something, \u2018Oh my goodness, they&#8217;re going to come back.&#8217; You know, none of that stuff ever, ever bothered me.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>McAuliffe&#8217;s campaign did not return a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Virginia&#8217;s murder rate climbed under both McAuliffe and his successor, Democratic governor Ralph Northam. In 2013\u2014one year before McAuliffe took office\u2014Virginia experienced 3.9 homicides per 100,000 people. In 2017, McAuliffe&#8217;s final year as governor, that number jumped to 5.6, a 44 percent increase. In 2020, meanwhile, the state saw a murder rate of nearly 6.2\u2014the highest level in more than two decades.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Muhammad is far from the only controversial criminal released under Bennett. Shortly before she left the board in April 2020, Bennett penned a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/gray-arc-content.s3.amazonaws.com\/WDBJ\/vpb-press-release-2020-04-15-vincent-martin.pdf\"><span>letter<\/span><\/a><span> defending her decision to release convicted cop killer Vincent Lamont Martin, whom she called a &#8220;trusted leader, peacemaker, mediator, and mentor.&#8221; In 2020, the state launched an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/richmond.com\/news\/local\/crime-and-courts\/former-parole-board-chair-violated-policy-in-releasing-parolees-from-supervision-records-show\/article_4ca1e44b-a0b1-5fbf-8298-6f67892def6b.html\"><span>investigation<\/span><\/a><span> to determine whether the board followed state protocol under Bennett\u2014according to the Office of the State Inspector General, Bennett &#8220;unilaterally released more than 100 parolees from Virginia Department of Corrections supervision in violation of long-standing rules.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>McAuliffe distanced himself from the scandal during the state&#8217;s Democratic primary in April, saying he &#8220;wasn&#8217;t there when this was going on.&#8221; He did, however, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AcEKH0MhQJU&amp;t=2449s\"><span>defend<\/span><\/a><span> his decision to prioritize &#8220;getting people parole,&#8221; a policy he turned to Bennett to enact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;When I was governor, I had to replace the entire parole board, because they didn&#8217;t believe in doing it,&#8221; McAuliffe said. &#8220;I leaned in hard on these issues, because we have a racist criminal justice system. I have said this forever.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Youngkin targeted McAuliffe&#8217;s parole board record in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/host2.adimpact.com\/admo\/viewer\/5028179\"><span>September ad<\/span><\/a><span>, which states that Virginia &#8220;simply won&#8217;t be safe with four more years of Terry McAuliffe.&#8221; The pair will square off at the polls on Nov. 2.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats McAuliffe: Not &#8216;bothered&#8217; by the possibility of a parolee committing a crime while out of prison  Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe \/ Getty Images &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-923269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}