Ralph Siegel, The Associated Press
January 19, 2001, Friday
Copyright 2001 Chattanooga Publishing Company
Chattanooga Times / Chattanooga Free Press
January 19, 2001, Friday
(TRENTON, N.J. -- The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a convicted cop killer transferred to a halfway house as a first step toward freedom after 37 years behind bars.
Thomas Trantino, 62, is the longest-serving inmate in New Jersey. He had been turned down for parole at least nine times.
The court ordered Trantino sent from state prison to a halfway house. If he successfully completes 12 months there, he will be released.
Trantino was convicted of killing two police officers in 1963. Fellow officers, victims’ family members and prosecutors have opposed Trantino’s release, saying that he deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison and that it would be unsafe to free him.
In Thursday’s ruling, Associate Justice Gary Stein wrote for a 4-1 majority that the parole board lacked firm proof that Trantino posed a threat to society.
“It is the absence of that proof that entitles Trantino to parole, not sympathy or compassion for him. No matter how much we may abhor the admitted killing of those two officers, the law must apply,” Stein wrote.
Trantino was originally sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 after the state’s death penalty law was deemed unconstitutional.
The two officers, Peter Voto and Gary Tedesco, were forced to strip to their underwear, beaten and shot in the head after they responded to a disturbance call at a bar. Trantino’s accomplish was shot to death a few days later by police trying to arrest him; Trantino later surrendered.
The families of Tedesco and Voto are “deeply distressed” by the Supreme Court ruling, Bergen County Executive William Schuber said. “It’s a continuing nightmare for them.”
Trantino -- described by officials as a model prisoner -- has said he does not remember killing the two officers because he was so high on drugs and alcohol.
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