The Florida Commission on Offender Review will consider possible parole at its April 17 meeting for Leo Schofield Jr., a former Lakeland man convicted of murder in 1989.
The commission’s schedule includes an effective interview for Schofield at the meeting in Tallahassee. The meeting, at which the commission will consider more than 30 parole requests, begins at 9 a.m.
The three-member panel voted in May to deny parole to Schofield, instead imposing a one-year extension of his release date to June 2024. It was the fourth parole hearing for Schofield, who has served nearly 36 years after being convicted of killing his wife, Michelle Saum Schofield, in 1987.
Schofield received a life sentence after a Polk County jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. Florida abolished parole in the 1980s, but inmates convicted of murder before 1994 are eligible for release after serving at least 25 years.
After last year’s meeting, the Florida Department of Corrections transferred Schofield to the Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami in preparation for his expected release.
Schofield has gained international attention through the podcast series “Bone Valley,” co-created and narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King. The 14-part series examines Schofield’s case in detail and concludes that he was wrongly convicted.