Parole board: Woman convicted in 1986 Lexington murder to serve entire life sentence
The Kentucky Parole Board decided Monday morning that the last of three people convicted in a 1986 Lexington stabbing death will serve out the remainder of her life sentence with no further parole opportunities without court action.
Karen Brown, now 56 years old, was convicted in the murder of 22-year-old Michael Turpin and has served 34 years in prison. A man, Keith Bouchard, and Turpin’s wife, Elizabeth Turpin, were also convicted and have since also been ordered by the parole board to serve out the entirety of their life sentences.
Before the recent hearings of Brown and Elizabeth Turpin, Michael Turpin’s family pleaded with the parole board to order both women to serve their full prison sentences.
Brown was interviewed by two parole board members last week and asked for the board to have mercy and release her. She told the parole board members that she had changed since the murder and would continue to pay for what happened even if she were out of prison.
Parole board member Brenda Beers-Reineke told Brown last Tuesday that the board also has to consider the family’s loss.
“I believe that the victims’ pain today is probably felt as profoundly each morning as it was in 1986,” Beers-Reineke said during the hearing. “As a parole board, it is our job to balance what you have done for yourself against what you did to others. And you yourself admitted that there is no time that one could serve that would make up for this.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2021 at 10:52 AM.
