Ask MRN: How does someone sentenced to 60 years with no parole get released after 27 years?

Dear MRN: A convicted murderer recently was paroled and is living in Quincy. He served only 27 years in prison for the brutal murder of a woman in Quincy. He originally was sentenced to 60 years without parole. How does this happen?

First, let’s review the case.

Marvin Lawrence Betts was sentenced in Adams County Circuit Court to 60 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the murder of 18-year-old Amanda Folker of Burlington, Iowa, on May 20, 1997. Betts had pled guilty seven days earlier, six days before his trial was to begin. Adams County State’s Attorney Barney Bier told Kelly Wilson of The Herald-Whig that Betts’ plea stipulated he must serve the full sentence with no chance of parole.

“A severe sentence is necessary,” Circuit Judge Scott Walden said during the sentencing.

Folker’s partially clothed body was found in the bushes in the 600 block of Vermont on Oct. 6, 1996. An autopsy report said Folker suffered 26 blows to the head and face from a hatchet, and several of her fingers were cut off. Betts’ fingerprints were found on a hatchet in a trash container near Folker’s body and on a can of charcoal lighter fluid found nearby.

Police said Folker came to Quincy with friends to celebrate a woman’s 20^th birthday party. Betts was arrested in Utah four days after Folker’s body was found.

Betts, now 50, was paroled from the Jacksonville Correctional Center on Sept. 13. He is eligible for release on Sept. 13, 2027. Todd Eyler, first assistant state’s attorney in Adams County, said Betts must register as a convicted felon with the police department in the city where he lives.

“That’s the only requirement he has,” Eyler said.

Eyler said a new truth-in-sentencing law was passed in August 1995. It required people convicted of certain offenses to serve a set amount of time of their sentence. Before August 1995, Eyler said all sentences were calculated at the rate of 50 percent.  When Betts was sentenced, the new truth-in-sentencing law required him to serve 100 percent of that sentence.  

Eyler said the new law was challenged, and ultimately the Illinois Supreme Court found it to be unconstitutional.  

The Restore Justice Foundation said that before 1998, people incarcerated in Illinois could proactively earn time off their court-appointed sentence through good behavior and participation in prison programming. However, the system changed in 1998 with the passage of truth-in-sentencing laws, which limit the amount of time people convicted of certain offenses can earn off their non-life sentences.

“By the time the legislature got around to fixing the truth-in-sentencing law in response to the Illinois Supreme Court decision, it was after (Betts) had been convicted and sentenced,” Eyler said.

That meant Betts was eligible for the 50 percent sentencing rule that previously was in place.

Eyler said ex-post facto laws prohibit a law passed from being applied retroactively after one is found guilty and sentenced.

Eyler said he also learned from the Illinois Department of Corrections that Betts received credits for good time pursuant to several bills that were passed over time, such as:

• House Bill 1722 and SB 2872 (which went into effect Jan. 1, 2018), which enhanced program sentence credit eligibility
• House Bill 94 (which went into effect Jan. 1, 2020), which allowed for certain retroactive program sentence credits.
• Safe T Act (which went into effect July 1, 2021), which allowed for program sentence credit on certain work assignments and enhanced programming awards for day-for-day credit
• House Bill 3026 (which went into effect Jan. 1, 2024), which allowed for certain retroactive work assignments and program sentence credits.

Eyler said the problem lies in the Illinois Legislature.

“The laws that our legislature, of which the Democrats have the majority, has passed have led to this outcome, and others similarly,” he said. “The desire by the Illinois legislature and Gov. JB Pritzker to be lenient on crime and to go out of their way to provide even more credit for time served is resulting in setting criminals free. It puts our state, our local communities and the common citizen in danger and at risk.

“Releasing hardened criminals, and in this case a murderer, to be free to roam our streets after only 27 years of a 60-year sentence puts our families in danger.”

Eyler believes voters must be more informed when they go to the polls.

“The common citizen does not take stock in the world around them and does not pay attention to what is going on in politics, their government and, in this case, the Illinois Legislature,” he said. “Voters need to know who is representing them, and they need to hold those elected officials accountable.”

Eyler says a lack of voting knowledge is happening nationally, not just in Illinois.

 “From keeping murderers like (Betts) locked up to protecting the right to bear arms or even to simple tax issues, there is too much at risk not to vote,” Eyler said. “Changing this path of destruction starts with becoming informed, involved and electing legislators who pass laws that hold people accountable for their actions.  In Illinois right now, we do not have that.  

“We have to change the culture in Illinois. We have to change the current trend in politics in Illinois as to who is in charge and who is making the laws. If we continue to worry about the rights of criminals rather than the rights of victims, things are only going to get worse.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Betts’ name was incorrect in a previous version of this story.