By Bond Robertson 
In 1993, Eric Smith tricked four-year-old Derek Ruby into the woods and beat him to death with a stone, he wrote Sky News.
The horrific murder took place in the village of Savona in New York, USA.
Smith was convicted of Robbie’s murder in 1994 and sentenced to nine years in prison. This means that Smith initially had the opportunity to obtain parole already in 2002, but his parents did not want to accept it.
Smith’s parents have denied his parole 11 times since 2002.
agreed
On October 5th came the news that Smith had been granted parole, Sky News wrote. He will be released from prison on November 17.
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When a person convicted of murder is granted a pardon, there are a number of assessments made beforehand. Smith was evaluated, among other things, on the basis of his prison behavior and past criminal history. The Oversight Board has made a comprehensive assessment of whether it is currently a danger to the community.
In addition, the Board of Directors is assessing whether Smith has the opportunity to rejoin the community.
– You don’t deserve it
During the trial in 1994, Smith’s lawyer tried unsuccessfully to argue that his client was mentally ill when he killed Ruby.
Smith, according to himself, must have lived a rough life before he killed four-year-old Ruby. He himself claimed to have been angry and frustrated for a long time, having been bullied and harassed by his father, sister and classmates for years.
In an interview with the Elmira Star-Gazette in New York in 2014, Smith said that Robbie did not deserve any of what happened.
Nobody deserves to be subjected to such violence. What you did to him was brutal.