They ignored the alarms and let him loose. I was just appalled. It's really tragic that this woman lived to be 69 years old and had to die like this. She said they relied on prison records, substance-abuse counseling and psychological tests that indicated he was unlikely to commit another crime. You have to take their word for it.
Prisoners have privacy rights.
Their records are secret. But this time the secret leaked. I've seen a copy of the Jesse James Cowans record - and it shows that the parole board made a fatal mistake and let the wrong man walk. In every category but one, he had the highest risk-score possible. On a maximum-risk scale that stops at 40, he had a 37.