James Moore, longest serving state inmate, granted parole in 1962 killing of Penfield girl
James R. Moore, a former Webster landscaper who strangled and raped a 14-year-old Penfield girl more than a half-century ago, has been granted parole.
Moore, 88, is the longest-serving inmate in New York's prison system.
A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision confirmed the parole board's decision and said that Moore does not yet have an approved post-release residence.
Moore's most recent parole hearing took place in late April. A transcript of that hearing was not immediately available. He had been unsuccessful in 20 previous attempts to secure early release after being sentenced to life in prison in 1963 for killing Pamela Moss near her home on Sawmill Drive.
Officials said that Moore will be released to parole supervision on or about June 6, 2022. He has been imprisoned since 1963 — 59 years — and is currently being held at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility in Greene County.
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley had been outspoken in opposing Moore's release when he had come before the parole board.
"For years, my predecessors, District Attorney Howard Relin and District Attorney Michael Green, and I have vehemently opposed the release of James Moore. We have kept the community informed of his upcoming parole interviews and even circulated petitions in our community to provide a voice to the Parole Board," Doorley said Tuesday afternoon."I am deeply saddened by this news. It is a disservice to Pamela’s family.”
Jose Saldana, director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, expressed support for the practice of granting parole to older inmates, although he did not speak about the particulars of Moore's case.
"The purpose of parole is to evaluate a person’s readiness to return back to their community based on who they are today, not to add layers of punishment on top of a person’s sentence," Saldana said. "While we cannot speak to the specifics of every case, the data is clear that older adults released from prison, including those previously convicted of serious crimes, have the lowest risk of recidivism. We support the independence of the Parole Board and any decision to release those who pose no threat to public safety.”
Killing shocked the community
In the afternoon of Sept. 6, 1962, as he worked in the area, Moore snatched Pamela Moss off a trail near her home that led to Panorama Plaza. He strangled the girl, raped her lifeless body and later dumped her in a water-filled gravel pit off Old Penfield Road.
In his confession, he told police her last word to him as he strangled her was "Please."
Also during his confession, he allegedly told police he had sexually molested at least 17 other girls and admitted to raping a 9-year-old girl behind a playground in Cobbs Hill Park on July 16, 1963. He was never charged in connection with that crime.
At the time of the slaying, Moore had been released just months earlier from a so-called "indefinite probation" in Erie County following a November 1960 conviction for molesting two girls in the Buffalo suburb of Depew.
Moore faced the death penalty for Pamela's killing but was spared when the girl's parents agreed to allow him to plead guilty to murder with the condition that he never be paroled.
Due to that arrangement, he was the first person in the state allowed to plead guilty to first-degree murder. But state law was changed in the 1970s, allowing him to be eligible for parole after serving 20 years.
Contact staff reporter Sean Lahman at slahman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @seanlahman.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: James Moore gets parole in death, rape of Pamela Moss in NY
