{"id":3240,"date":"2021-12-23T18:37:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T18:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CBMiTGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmN0aW5zaWRlci5jb20vbmV3cy9hcnRpY2xlL2N0LXRvcC1uZXdzLXN0b3JpZXMtMjAyMS0xNjcwNDY4NC5waHDSAUhodHRwczovL3d3dy5jdGluc2lkZXIuY29tL25ld3MvYW1wL2N0LXRvcC1uZXdzLXN0b3JpZXMtMjAyMS0xNjcwNDY4NC5waHA"},"modified":"2021-12-23T18:37:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T18:37:16","slug":"connecticuts-10-biggest-news-stories-of-2021-ct-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=3240","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut\u2019s 10 biggest news stories of 2021 – CT Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michael
\n

Michael Cox and his mother, Stephanie Hyman, taken while she was visiting him in prison.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Hyman \/ Contributed photo<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\n

On Nov. 19, the Board of Pardons and Paroles<\/a> granted Michael Cox \u2014 who has failing kidneys but has survived two bouts with COVID-19 since the pandemic began \u2014 a commutation, the first it has granted since 2019<\/a>. Cox, 49, who is serving a 75-year sentence for a string of violent crimes he committed<\/a> on 1991, pleaded guilty to murder, felony murder, aiding and abetting manslaughter, and second-degree assault with a firearm.<\/p>\n

Cox has several medical issues<\/a> such as chronic renal failure, anemia, diabetes and a low red blood cell count. This requires him to use a walker or wheelchair to get around. A mitigation specialist wrote in a document dated July 7, 2020, that the Department of Correction classified Cox as having a medical score of 5, needing 24-hour nursing care for an extended period of time.<\/p>\n

After hearing his case<\/a>, the board knocked 30 years off what was left of Cox\u2019s 75-year sentence, making him suddenly eligible for compassionate release, a form of parole only available to inmates who suffer from terminal or very serious illness that could be mitigated by a commutation, said Richard Sparaco, the board\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n

– Mark Zarektsky and Kelan Lyons<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Cox and his mother, Stephanie Hyman, taken while she was visiting him in prison. Stephanie Hyman \/ Contributed photo On Nov. 19, the Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Michael Cox \u2014 who has failing kidneys but has survived two bouts with COVID-19 since the pandemic began \u2014 a commutation, the first it has granted since 2019. Cox, 49, who is serving a 75-year sentence for a string of violent crimes he committed on 1991, pleaded guilty to murder, felony murder, aiding and abetting manslaughter, and second-degree assault with a firearm. Cox has several medical issues such as chronic… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/connecticuts-10-biggest-news-stories-of-2021-ct-insider.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}