Criminal Justice System


I have created this blog to discuss Americans in American prisons.

Their families - their victims - their life in prison - did they learn anything--- and is the American prison system rehabilitative? Traumatic? Or do they come out worse than when they went in?
I will talk about miscellaneous cases - and try to contact the prisoners with reader's questions.....
I will post the inmates letters - comments -- etc.
I hope you will find this site educational - informational - and eye opening.
All the best -

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Update- Shawn Novak

On July 10, 2012, Shawn Novak went in front of the Virginia Parole Board.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A man who killed two Virginia Beach boys more than 21 years ago has been denied parole.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that the state Parole Board made its decision shortly after Shawn Paul Novak became eligible for parole on July 10. A board administrator said the ruling won’t be officially announced until September, but the victims’ families told the newspaper they’ve been notified about the decision.
Novak is serving a life sentence for the March 1991 murders of 7-year-old Scot Weaver and 9-year-old Daniel Geier. Novak was 16 at the time of the killings.
The victims’ families had spent months lobbying the Parole Board to keep Novak locked up. Tami Weaver, Scot’s mother, says the board received more than 150 letters and more than 2,000 petition signatures opposing Novak’s release.

Apparently, Novak has kept busy tutoring other inmates, earning degrees from correspondence courses, and has gotten married to Christina Novak.

The parole board has decided not to review his case again for 3 more years.