A man convicted of second degree murder in Pawnee County is eligible for a parole hearing before the state Prisoner Review Board in May, for possible release in June.
Curtis Wade, 48, is in custody under special management at the Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility. He committed second degree murder on June 19, 1993, and also committed aggravated battery on June 16, 2002, both in Pawnee County.
Two additional inmates with area convictions are eligible for parole hearings next month.
Charles Hunter, 49, is in custody at the maximum security level at Larned State Hospital. Hunter has multiple Douglas County convictions for rape and aggravated burglary. He was also convicted of battery against a youth center officer in Pawnee County in 2005.
Over the years, Hunter wrote dozens of letters to the Lawrence Journal-World maintaining his innocence. In the letters, Hunter claimed that another inmate, “Marvin,” committed the series of break-ins and rapes he had confessed to. In 2008, the New York-based Innocence Project, which assists inmates convicted of crimes in obtaining DNA testing that could prove their innocence, took Hunter’s case and spent thousands of dollars paying for the testing. Although the evidence was unable to positively identify Hunter as the rapist, an Innocence Project spokesman said the results “confirms the prosecution’s theory at the trial.”
Ricky Ray Redford, 55, is in custody at the low-medium security level at Norton Correctional Facility. On May 6, 1986, he solicited a kidnapping and committed aggravated assault in Ellsworth County. He also has six Sedgwick County convictions, all stemming from crimes committed on April 30 and May 9 of 1986: aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sodomy, rape, aggravated battery, burglary and felony criminal damage to property. According to a 1986 article from the Associated Press, a 22-year-old woman was abducted from her parents’ home in Wichita by a group of people who believed she had stolen cocaine and money, and were trying to make her return them. Redford, the girl’s ex-boyfriend, helped abduct her, broke her arm and raped her repeatedly over a 10-day period.
Public comment sessions for these inmates will be held today at the Finney State Office Building in Wichita and Wednesday at the Landon State Office Building in Topeka. Any citizen who would like to express comments on these inmates may send a letter to Kansas Department of Corrections, Prisoner Review Board; Landon State Office Building; 900 SW Jackson Street, 4th Floor; Topeka, KS 66612-1220.