Jimmy O’Neal Spencer
MONTGOMERY-Jimmy O’Neal Spencer’s scheduled parole hearing is today, Governor Ivey sent a letter to the members of the Board adamantly opposing Mr. Spencer being granted parole.
August 8, 2022
Hon. Leigh Gwathney, Chairman
Hon. Darryl Littleton, Associate Member
Hon. Dwayne Spurlock, Associate Member
Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles
P.O. Box 302405
Montgomery, AL 36130
Re: August 9, 2022 Parole Hearing for Jimmy O’Neal Spencer, AIS #137858
Dear Board Members:
Under no circumstances should Jimmy O’Neal Spencer be granted parole. Spencer is a career criminal who is still awaiting trial for brutally killing three innocent people after he was wrongly granted parole in November 2017. To parole him again now would be dangerous and downright despicable.
Spencer had a long rap sheet the last time he came up for parole. He was first convicted in 1984 for burglary, and following that, Spencer spent the next two decades in one form of trouble or another, with anests and convictions for offenses ranging from assault and multiple burglaries to breaking and entering a vehicle. In the early 1990s, Spencer was even sentenced to life in prison following one of his multiple convictions for escape.
Of course, all those crimes occurred before Spencer was paroled five years ago. But now, as he approaches yet another chance at parole, he stands accused of another, far more serious crime: capital murder.
The facts of these most recent crimes are gruesome and devastating. In July 2018, while out on parole, Spencer reportedly entered a pair of neighboring homes in Guntersville and murdered three unsuspecting victims: 65-year-old Martha Reliford, 74-year-old Marie Martin, and sevenyear-old Colton Lee, Marie’s great-grandson and a lover of monster trucks and John Deere tractors. Marie and little Colton were found dead in one home—Marie stabbed and strangled, Colton the victim of blunt force trauma. And Martha, herself a respected advocate for crime victims, was found in another home beaten to death with the flat side of a hatchet. In each case, Spencer’s motivation appears to have been money.
These senseless killings helped bring heightened scrutiny to the Parole Board, and with the Legislature’s help, we significantly reformed the Board’s structure and operations. All this effort was to ensure that no family should ever again lose a loved one because a person was wrongly paroled.
But today is a time to return our focus to this particular case, and in doing so, to ensure that Spencer is never again able to harm innocent people. By any measure, Spencer is unworthy of parole. He has proven that he is a danger to the public and cannot be trusted in any way. His first award of parole was a grievous error, with deadly consequences for three precious lives. The Board simply cannot parole Spencer a second time.
Kay Ivey/Governor
