Bounds Denied Parole, Case to be Reviewed Again in October 2013

It’s official.
64 year old Gerald Wayne (J.B.) Bounds of McMinnville will remain in prison at least two more years.
Three members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles have voted to concur with the vote of board member Yusuf Hakeem that Bounds be denied parole due to the seriousness of the offense in the 1981 fatal shooting of 27 year old Sherman Wright of DeKalb County.
Following Bounds’ latest parole hearing on October 20, Hakeem voted that Bounds be “put off” for two years before his next parole hearing and that, in the meantime, he become involved in cognitive behavior programs including “Thinking for a Change’, “Criminal Thinking”, and “Victim Impact”. These programs, which will be made available to him in prison, are designed to emphasize the role of altering thinking patterns in bringing about change in an offender’s life.
In announcing his vote on October 20, Hakeem said. ‘You (Bounds) are incarcerated for first degree murder and the manner in which it has been described, I would consider it calculated in the manner in which it happened. The programs that you have been involved in, I think are good. The jobs that you’ve held are very good. But some of the things I would want to see as far as programs are concerned are programs like criminal thinking, thinking for a change. Programs that deal with the mind. Something that gives me great pause and great concern is your account of what took place, particularly when I compare that to the account that’s in the appeals record. To me they’re very different. Based on everything I can see and understand at this time Mr Bounds I can’t vote today to parole you sir. Some of the things I think you need to do is (get in) the type of programs that deal with the mind. Though you have been here for a number of years, the Wright family has no contact, so to speak, with their loved one. When I asked about the impact on the families, I listened as you made comments but I did not hear any remorse on your part for what took place. But my vote today is to decline you for two years for seriousness of the offense with programming as I suggested dealing with the mind. This will tell me that you are ready to move back into society and not be a threat to society,” said Hakeem.
Bounds, convicted of first degree murder, is serving a life prison sentence at the Southeast Regional Correctional Facility in Pikeville. He will be up for parole again in October, 2013.