The North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission has given its nod to grant parole to Shashane Chambers, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for second-degree murder committed in 1994. Chambers, with the identification number 0072093, will be released under the Mutual Agreement Parole Program (MAPP), a rehabilitative initiative linking the Commission, the State Prison System, and the inmate in an educational and vocational agreement; this program dictates that Chambers’ parole release date be set for January 5, 2026, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.
Under the terms of MAPP, which aims to promote constructive reintegration, Chambers will have met specific criteria related to scholarly and vocational advancements before release. However, the exact nature of these advancements was not detailed in the commission’s notice. Their press office, located at (919) 716-3010, is available for further inquiries regarding the parole process, an action stemming from a bygone era of sentencing laws in North Carolina. Given that the current sentencing law, known as Structured Sentencing, has abolished the parole option for offenses committed on or after October 1, 1994, Chambers falls into a unique category, sentenced under the older guidelines—hence, eligible for parole considerations.
Since the involved crime took place before the cutoff of the Structured Sentencing statute, the obligation of executing parole falls to the Commission for old cases like that of Chambers who was sentenced on August 22, 1994, by the Guilford County Superior Court for a crime whose gravity today would bar such reprieve, and this serves as a stark reminder of how shifts in legislative landscapes can dramatically alter the fates of those entwined with the justice system…