This morning Assistant State Attorney Dan Feinberg of our Homicide Unit appeared before the full panel of the Florida Parole Commission in Tallahassee to speak in opposition to the parole of Inmate James Curtis McCrae. Today the Commission voted to extend the Presumptive Parole Release Date (PPRD) to October 4, 2022.
McCrae was sentenced to death for the 1973 rape and murder of Margaret Mears. Approximately one month before her murder, the defendant pled guilty to an unrelated crime of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit first degree murder. He was on bond at the time he fatally beat Mrs. Mears.
In 1991 the death penalty was overturned on appeal and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. The inmate was given a presumptive release date set for this month.
Mrs. Mears was a widow at the time of her murder and had no children. ASA Feinberg was the sole person appearing on her behalf.
One of the original detectives assigned to investigate the case, now a Lee County Sheriff’s Deputy John Millican, provided a written statement that in his 36 years of law enforcement this is one of the most brutal homicide scenes he had witnessed. The Honorable Judge J. Frank Porter also wrote a letter in opposition of his release.
The result of today’s hearing is McCrae will not be up for parole for another 5 years and will remain incarcerated.
Samantha Syoen
Communications Director
State Attorney’s Office
239-533-1125
ssyoen@sao20.org