MONTICELLO — Reading the day’s newspaper is usually a time ofrelaxation for Mary Nell Ready May, but Wednesday morning’s paperbrought heart-rending pain and disbelief.

The mother of a Monticello man murdered in 1986 was shocked todiscover former governor Ronnie Musgrove had commuted the sentenceof her son’s murderer.

Closure is not something the victim’s family has been able toattain.

“I’ve been doing my best to put his death behind me and everytime I seem to, something happens,” May said. “First he wasreleased early and now this. He wasn’t even supposed to be up forparole until last year.”

One of the governor’s last acts Tuesday was to suspend orcommute the sentences of at least eight people.

Among them was Boots Carter Blanks, a Lawrence County native whowas convicted of murder and aggravated assault and sentenced tolife in prison in February 1987 in Forrest County.

Blanks was convicted of murdering Danny Ford, 32, of Monticello,on Father’s Day in 1986. He served 10 years before receiving amedical release in 1997.

In his order, Musgrove did not cite a reason for commutingBlanks’s sentence. He noted only that Blanks was a 73-year-olddecorated war veteran who served in Korea and Vietnam. He alsoordered Blanks’s right to vote be restored.

“His slate has been wiped clean,” May said. “Musgrove restoredhis rights, and now he’s like anyone else.”

“We feel like Ronnie Musgrove owes not just us, but all thesefamilies, an explanation,” added James “Jimmie” Ready, Ford’sbrother. “We would like to see Musgrove give us these answers. Hetook the responsibility to wipe the slate clean. He should take theresponsibility of talking to the victims’ families and explaininghis actions.”

Musgrove’s notice of Blanks’s military service is not a reasonto commute his sentence, Ready said.

“His being a veteran had no sway on his decision that day toshoot into that truck and kill my brother,” he said. “His(military) service has nothing to do with the crime hecommitted.”

Ford was a bystander in a dispute between two other men,according to the family. He was riding with a friend, Jimmy Selman,who was not on good terms with Blanks.

When Selman used Blanks’s driveway to turn around, Blankspursued them with the lights of his car turned off. Blanks swoopedinto the passing lane, catching them unaware, and fired severalshots into Selman’s truck. The first or second shot struck Ford inthe back of the neck.

Blanks then swerved in front of the truck to make it stop andunloaded the 9mm pistol into the vehicle. At some point during theshooting, Selman was struck in the arm.

Selman fled to the hospital to get treatment for Ford, andBlanks continued to pursue. Hospital officials called officers whenSelman sought refuge in an emergency room and yelled for them to goout and help Ford.

“It was a senseless killing,” Ready said. “There was no reasonfor it.”

May and Ready would like to see a law established that victimsare notified of pending changes in the criminal’s status. They saidit would save the victims unnecessary pain.

“We read about something like this in the newspaper just likeeveryone else does,” Ready said. “What a shocking way to hear aboutsomething like this. Do you know what it’s like to answer the phonein the morning and hear your mother crying and not know what’swrong? And then to learn something like this …”

The family never even knew Blanks was petitioning to have hissentence commuted, they said. If they had, they could have takensteps to try to oppose it.

“Juries send these people to jail for life, and they can get outafter seven or eight years. It’s just not fair. It’s not right,” hesaid. “I wish this could be a call for the legislature to takeaction for victims’ rights, because to me this means RonnieMusgrove said it was OK for (Blanks) to kill my brother.”

Victims rights have now become a personal cause of his, he said.In the past, he noticed when governors would pardon criminals orcommute sentences but didn’t pay much attention. He certainly neverexpected it to happen in his brother’s case. Now, he is taking anactive role in trying to ensure it doesn’t happen to anyoneelse.

“We feel anger, grief, frustration and helplessness. Maybe if wecan’t help ourselves, we can help someone else,” he said.

Even though he seeks legislation to notify victims families, hesaid it shouldn’t need to be a law.

“Why do we even need a law for this? It should be commoncourtesy,” he said. “It seems to me it’s just the moral thing for agovernment to do.”

He would also like to see more control in the legislature overlast-minute pardons and sentence commutations.

“That’s an awesome power (for a governor) to have. No one canquestion him. No one can stop him. There needs to be some kind ofcheck on how he can use it. He says it wasn’t politics — then whatwas it? I know we would like to know, and I’m sure all the otherfamilies would like to know too.”

Ready and May, a retired teacher, said they both supported theformer governor throughout his term because of his stance oneducation. They used to speak highly of him. Now, they said, whenhis name comes up it won’t be about education, but betrayal.