Beyond Redemption: The People Vs Lucas and Bender

The author takes the reader through the act of murder as recalled by Allan Hurd, as well as the arrest, court appearances, trial, and conviction of Bender and Lucas. He describes in graphic detail their demeanour from the time of their arrest through their entire trial. He follows their lives in prison, including a hostage taking incident participated in by Lucas resulting in the unfortunate death of one of the hostages. In this book Montgomery is equally if not more critical of that piece of legislation and the procedures that are followed that permit a convicted inmate to apply to the court for a hearing by a jury where he must only convince two-thirds of them on a balance of probabilities that his eligibility time for parole should be reduced. At such a hearing, affidavits, statements and reports referring to the inmate' s life and behaviour in the penitentiary are presented to the jury by the applicant inmate. It is this legislation, as well as the politicians who fashion and support it, that Montgomery is highly critical of. He contends that it is this legislation that permitted Lucas on February 26, 1990, to proceed with such an application, following which the jury recommended that Lucas' parole eligibility time be reduced from 20 years to ' forthwith.' ' This is a well researched and crafted work and an extremely good read' -from the Foreword by the Honourable Benjamin Hewak.