Lawmaker Says House To Act On Parole Measure

Massachusetts House lawmakers are poised to act on a measure that would deny parole to anyone convicted of a third serious felony.

Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty, co-chair of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, said Monday the House plans to strip the habitual offender proposal out of a more far-reaching sentencing bill approved by the Senate last week.

"We are going to report out in part on the habitual recidivist portion of what the Senate sent us over, and we are going to debate that area of what the Senate sent us between now and Wednesday midnight," O'Flaherty said Monday afternoon.

Wednesday is the final day of the 2011 session.

The bill would deny parole to individuals convicted three times of crimes such as murder, rape and kidnapping.

The measure has long been advocated by the family of Melissa Gosule, a 27-year-old woman who was murdered by a repeat offender in 1999.

Renewed calls for passage came after a veteran Woburn police officer was fatally shot by a parolee last winter.

With reporting by The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom