Former Michigan parole board chair Stephen Marschke testified in 1999 regarding parolable lifers, “It has been the longstanding philosophy of the Michigan Parole Board that
a life sentence means just that–life in prison . . . Good behavior is expected and is not in and of itself grounds for parole.” As Berrien County Sheriff in 1994, he was the last person to see Black teenager Eric McGinnis, 16, alive before the child’s body was found in the St. Joseph River which separates the white town of St. Joseph from nearly all-Black Benton Harbor.