STATE BOARD DENIES PAROLE AGAIN FOR ABIGAIL YOUNG
Parole has once again been denied for a Brenham woman convicted in the death of her four-year-old daughter.
This (Thursday) morning, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied the early release of Abigail Young, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for Injury to a Child by Omission after the death of Emma Thompson in 2009.
Young was found guilty in 2010 along with her boyfriend, Lucas Coe, who is serving a life sentence.
Amanda Mathews, Young’s sister and Thompson’s aunt, issued the following statement:
We are so very thankful the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles have heard our continued concerns year after year. We are grateful we will get to take this time to celebrate Emma and her continued justice. It has been almost 12 years since Emma died and every memory we have made or picture we have taken is missing her smiling face. We will continue to fight for her each and every year. Today we feel Abigail Young's denial is a true win for our beautiful angel Emma.
Update @ 8 a.m. Friday: Late Thursday, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) provided additional reasoning for the board’s decision. According to the TDCJ, Young was denied parole because the offense “has elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior, or conscious selection of victim’s vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety.”
The board also said in its ruling that Young’s accrued good conduct “is not an accurate reflection of the offender’s potential for rehabilitation,” adding that Young’s release would “endanger the public.”
A law was passed in Thompson’s name in 2013 to prevent annual parole review for anyone convicted of a felony against a child, instead making review occur every five years. However, Young is eligible for yearly reviews since she has served half her sentence.
Mathews said earlier this year that she planned to meet with legislators this session to have the law reworded to prevent annual review, but COVID-19 has hindered that process.
Young’s next parole review date is expected to come in May of 2022.
Abigail Young should have to spend every day of the sentence handed down and not even be considered for parole. I sincerely hope that the law changes whereupon persons who are convicted in the death of a child must serve every day of their sentence.
Abigail knowingly put her daughter in danger and should have been sentenced to life in prison.
That should be the law state wide in my opinion ?????
Anyone harming a child, particularly unto death, deserves ALL the penalty that is allowed by law.