A Georgia escapee who eluded authorities for nearly 48 years before being recaptured in Connecticut wants his prison sentence commuted.
The attorney for Robert Stackowitz, 71, told The Associated Press his client is in poor health and sending him back to Georgia to serve out his term would amount to a death sentence. Attorney Norman Pattis said his client suffers from heart failure, bladder cancer and other ailments.
Stackowitz was serving a 17-year term for robbery by force when he escaped from a prison work camp in Carroll County in 1968. U.S. Marshals arrested him Monday in Sherman, Conn., after his Social Security application turned up his fugitive status.
Stackowitz applied for Social Security under his real name because his alias, Robert Gordon, did not have a proper credit history, ABC News reported.
Pattis plans to ask Georgia officials to commute Stackowitz’s sentence. A spokesman for the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles told The AP on Friday that the board will look at Stackowitz’s case when he is extradited to Georgia in a few weeks. Stackowitz is being held in Connecticut on $75,000 bond.
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