Suffolk County's top prosecutor and a murdered man's mother stood before cameras Friday to warn New York residents about four bills moving through the state legislature, measures they say would slash prison sentences, gut the parole board's authority, and eventually put serial killers, mass shooters, and cop killers back on the street.
District Attorney Ray Tierney, who days earlier secured a guilty plea from accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, did not mince words. The bills, he told Fox News Digital, target "the worst of the worst."
The four proposals, the Earned Time Act, the Fair and Timely Parole Act, Elder Parole, and the Second Look Act, carry titles that sound measured. Their mechanics are anything but. Together, they would retroactively cut sentences, strip parole boards of the power to weigh the severity of a crime, create a path out of prison for aging killers, and let felons petition judges for sentence reductions with no limit on how many times they can try.
Start with the Earned Time Act. It would cut every sentence short of life in prison by half. It would apply retroactively. And it would bar prison officials from deducting credits for good behavior even when an inmate commits assaults or stabbings behind bars. Tierney said the result would be "the immediate release of thousands of New York's most dangerous inmates."
The Fair and Timely Parole Act would flip the parole process on its head. Under its terms, the state parole board could no longer consider the nature of the original crime, or even whether the inmate has shown remorse, when deciding whether to grant release.
Tierney laid out what that means in practice:
"It turns parole upside down, it prohibits consideration of the seriousness of the crime and even the defendant's remorse or lack of it."
Then there is Elder Parole. It would create a California-style program granting parole eligibility to any inmate older than 55 who has served at least 15 years, including those sentenced to life without parole. Officials at the briefing said the bill would effectively abolish life-without-parole sentences in New York. California's own experience with early-release policies has already drawn fierce criticism from prosecutors and victims' families in that state.
Tierney pointed to Payton Gendron, the white supremacist who livestreamed the killing of 10 people at a Tops supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo. Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan sentenced Gendron on February 15, 2023, to life in prison without parole for domestic terrorism motivated by hate and each of the 10 counts of first-degree murder.
Under Elder Parole, Tierney warned, that sentence would no longer be final:
"Once [Gendron] turns 55, every two years those families are going to have to go through the parole process again. Why?"
The fourth bill, the Second Look Act, would let any convicted felon petition a judge for a sentence reduction. The judge hearing the petition could not be the same one who imposed the original sentence. There is no cap on the number of petitions. If one judge says no, the inmate can immediately file again with a different judge, and keep filing.
Tierney grounded his argument in specific cases that Long Island residents have lived with for decades. Joel Rifkin murdered between nine and 17 women. Colin Ferguson killed six and wounded 19 on the Long Island Rail Road. Both are serving lengthy sentences. Under the proposed bills, both could become eligible for parole review or sentence reduction.
And then there is Heuermann, the New York architect who pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted to an eighth killing during a hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead on April 8, 2026. He is expected to be sentenced in June after admitting to torturing and killing eight women. Tierney secured that plea just days before the Friday briefing.
The district attorney made his view plain:
"These people are where they are because they richly deserve it. Every second of whatever sentence they receive, they've earned."
Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine, the county's top elected official, joined Tierney at the briefing. His message was blunt.
"These bills are an insult to every law-abiding citizen, the law enforcement community and especially the victims of these crimes. Use common sense and do not pass these bills."
Theresa Bliss lost her 25-year-old son David in 2021. He was killed outside a pizzeria in Port Jefferson after an argument with strangers. The man who shot him received a sentence of 40 years to life in prison. Under the Earned Time Act, that sentence could be cut dramatically, and retroactively.
Bliss addressed her words directly to the lawmakers pushing the bills:
"I have a question for every New York lawmaker pushing the Earned Time Act, Fair and Timely Parole Act, Elder Parole and Second Look Act, does our pain mean anything to you?"
She continued: "How do you fight so aggressively for the early release of murderers, yet dismiss the families whose lives were shattered?"
And she landed the point that Albany's criminal-justice reformers never seem willing to confront head-on:
"When you pass laws that prioritize criminals over victims, you're not reforming the system, you're erasing us."
That is not a talking point from a political consultant. It is a mother who buried her son and now watches legislators draft bills that could shorten his killer's time behind bars. Failures of public institutions to protect victims and hold offenders accountable have become a pattern, one that extends well beyond New York. A recent scandal involving a New York Assembly aide accused of rape showed how easily Albany's political class can look the other way when accountability gets uncomfortable.
Tierney has not limited his pushback to these four bills. He has been a vocal critic of New York's bail reform laws. Earlier this month, he sidestepped the state's sanctuary laws to allow ICE agents to take custody of a Guatemalan man accused of raping a child, a move that put him squarely at odds with Albany's preferred approach to immigration enforcement.
Fox News Digital reached out to Governor Kathy Hochul's office for comment on the bills. No response from the governor's office was reported. Hochul signed the Clean Slate Act in Brooklyn on November 16, 2023, a law that allows certain criminal records to be sealed years after sentencing or release if no further convictions occur. That signing signaled the direction Albany has been heading on criminal-justice policy.
The pattern is familiar in blue states. Legislators frame bills with gentle names. Advocates describe them as overdue reforms. And the people who have to live with the consequences, victims' families, prosecutors, law enforcement, ordinary residents, find out what the fine print actually means only when someone like Tierney holds a press conference and reads it aloud. Similar dynamics have played out in California, where public figures have drawn backlash for appearing to sympathize with violent offenders over the people they harmed.
Consider what these four bills would mean in combination. A convicted killer serving 40 years to life could have that sentence halved under the Earned Time Act. The parole board, barred from weighing the severity of the crime, would review the case under the Fair and Timely Parole Act. If the inmate is over 55 and has served 15 years, Elder Parole kicks in. And if all else fails, the Second Look Act lets the inmate petition judge after judge after judge until one says yes.
Each bill on its own raises serious questions. Stacked together, they create a conveyor belt pointed at the prison exit. Tierney framed the stakes clearly:
"While these bills are often framed as reforms and have innocuous titles, in reality, they will push thousands of New York's most violent criminals out onto our streets."
The open questions are significant. What are the actual bill numbers? Which committees are advancing them? Where does the governor stand? None of those answers were provided at the briefing or in the available reporting. And lawmakers pushing the legislation have not been quoted defending the specific provisions Tierney described. That silence itself tells a story. When lawmakers in California faced similar public scrutiny over controversial legislation, the instinct was to avoid direct engagement rather than defend the details.
New York voters deserve to hear from the sponsors of these bills. They deserve to know whether Albany intends to tell the families of Payton Gendron's victims that the man who murdered their loved ones in a racist rampage will get a parole hearing every two years once he turns 55. They deserve to know whether the legislature believes Joel Rifkin, Colin Ferguson, and Rex Heuermann have served enough time.
Theresa Bliss asked whether her pain means anything to the lawmakers writing these bills. So far, Albany's answer is silence. That tells you everything.
