Back in 2009 an 8-year-old girl Tori Stafford was raped and murdered, it happened on April 8.
Two killers were arrested and convicted in 2010 and 2012. They were identified as Michael Rafferty and his ex-girlfriend Terri-Lynne McClintic, both convicted and placed behind bars. Since then, victims family could never get peace, due to Tori`s story was brought up to the light every couple of years. In 2016 convicted killer Michael Rafferty had filed an appeal. Later, Terri-Lynne McClintic was relocated to a lower security Indigenous healing lodge in Saskatchewan.
Victims father Rodney Stafford is speaking strongly against McClintic's relocation as she shown no desire for rehabilitation, so Rodney thinks, she didn’t deserve lower security conditions. McClintic was never a model inmate and her behavior behind bars shows completely the opposite, so the decision about her relocation is even more unexplainable. In 2012 she was accused and pleaded guilty in the attack and assault of a fellow inmate at the prison in Kitchener. Also, Rodney said, it is unclear, how she could be identified as Indigenous, due to her birth details, as she was given up by her birth mother and another member of her biological family, also there is a statement, that her birth mother didn’t really know who Terri-Lynn`s father is. So with all those details, it is really unclear why the Board would approve a decision to relocate her to a lower security Indigenous institution.
That’s because McClintic, who was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years, could actually try for it as soon as six years from now. This possibility is a law that has allowed offenders who were sentenced to life to apply for parole after having served 15 years. The Conservatives eliminated it on Dec. 2, 2011, McClintic is eligible to apply in 2024.
The statistic shows that not every convicted felon, who is eligible, had applied for an early parole. A vast majority of eligible offenders have not applied for early release using the faint hope clause. By April 2009, there were 1,792 offenders with cases that were eligible for judicial review. Just under 1,000 were made eligible for a hearing — of those, there were decisions in 173 cases.
Even for someone like McClintic, or anybody for whom the old law applies, it’s the case that you still have to go before a judge first to prove you have a reasonable prospect of having a jury potentially reduce your sentence .
Crimes like this made by a really sick people, and they should be punished for what they`ve done by severe consequences and there should be no easy way for them to really negotiate their sentence serving conditions. Stafford said, every day he thinks of his late daughter and is heartbroken as she missed big milestones of the life she could have. Like her 13th birthday and becoming a teenager, her first driver license at 15 and sweet 16 birthday party, and many more, today she would be 18 years old. Unfortunately, because of mind-twisted criminals like Rafferty and McClintic, she will never have an opportunity to live a beautiful life, she could have.