After serving eight-and-a-half years of a 10 year sentence for his role in the infamous Club New York shooting on December 27, 1999, Shyne finally knows the day he will once again become a free man: October 6, 2009. That release date has already been confirmed by the parole board, but a hearing tomorrow will outline the parameters of ‘Po’s parole, details that could determine whether or not the former Bad Boy Records artist will be able to resume his recording career free of stifling restrictions.
“What happened was when they sentenced him [in March of 2001 to ten years] they didn’t sentence him to any parole – post release supervision, which was mandatory. So the Correction Department has asked the court to re-sentence him – under the law they can do that,” explained Shyne’s attorney, Oscar Michelen, to HipHopDX. “And so the judge will decide whether to give him the maximum parole, which is five years, or the minimum parole, which is two-and-a-half years. Shyne will automatically have to do at least a year-and-a-half, which is how much of [the] 10 year [sentence remains]… [Shyne] still owes the balance to the 10. But, [the district attorney] also [has] been looking to add to that [time] as well…”
“The same D.A. [from 2001] is on the case,” continued Michelen, “that’s Matt Bogdanos. He’s in Iraq… And, it’s being handled by the D.A. who’s in charge of all post-release supervision. When they enacted mandatory sentencing, determinate sentencing, they said that you also had to have mandatory parole. Most judges just assumed that parole would be added automatically. They didn’t realize that they had to actually sentence the person to it. So now a new law was passed that allows the Correction Department to address that by asking the judge to re-sentence the inmate…”
Shyne will appear in New York County Supreme Court tomorrow for that re-sentencing in front of the Honorable Charles Solomon, the same judge that sentenced Shyne to his 10-year term back in 2001. Tomorrow morning’s hearing will mark Shyne’s first time being present in court in years.
Having been transported from his longtime housing at Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County, New York, Shyne has been at Rikers Island since July 21st – the original scheduled court date – in preparation for tomorrow’s appearance in front of Judge Solomon. Once his parole is determined, Shyne will be sent back to Woodbourne to complete his term until October 6th.
“It’s tough, because it’s a violent crime [that Shyne was convicted of] and the safest thing for a judge is just to do what the D.A. wants in these cases [regarding the parameters of parole],” said Michelen. “It was on July 21st when this was last in court, that we basically convinced the judge to think about it a little bit and take some time to review the sentencing memoranda we submitted. And he’ll give us his decision [tomorrow].”
As Mr. Michelen revealed to DX back in February, there was anticipation six months ago that the parole board would advance Shyne’s release date to April based on the situation at that time at Woodbourne, but if that didn’t happen a parole hearing date was still scheduled for June. That hearing did in fact take place in June, at Woodbourne, but became merely a formal confirmation of the October 6th release date as the parole board decided that Shyne would not be released early and due to determinative sentencing would have to max-out ‘til his previously set October release.
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