Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch issued the following statement concerning today’s decision by the Rhode Island Supreme Court that reinstated the convictions of the defendant Jason Ferrell and overturned a sentence reduction that a Superior Court judge granted Ferrell on Jan. 25, 2007:

“The lower court’s second granting of post-conviction relief to this defendant was a true affront to justice that deserved to be overturned and, therefore, I greatly appreciate the Supreme Court’s decision. The Attorney General’s Office has spent 13 years, encompassing thousands of hours of staff time, keeping this dangerous and violent criminal where he belongs: in prison. Since the age of 16, when, with a shotgun from five feet away, he shot and critically injured a man who eventually suffered in a coma for three years before dying, Jason Ferrell has shown little regard for his crimes and even less regard for his victims. The original trial justice called Mr. Ferrell ‘the leader of the pack’ of offenders who ambushed, shot, and killed John Carpenter, a 26-year-old father of two children whose wife, Sonia, was expecting the couple's third child. We will look forward to arguing our case vigorously on the lower court’s injudicious granting of a sentence reduction to the defendant whenever the re-hearing is scheduled.”

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