A relative of three people killed by the Briley brothers gang has asked the Virginia Parole Board not to release the brothers’ accomplice when board members begin voting next week. “I have not healed, nor will I heal, nor will I forgive,“ said Robert Jones of Southlake, Texas, adding that he will travel to Richmond if that’s what it takes to make himself heard.

After Morris Lee Ridley’s data on the psychology of criminal behavior turned heads in state government, Gov. Linwood Holton named him to the Virginia Probation and Parole Board in 1971. The first African-American named to the three-member board since its inception in 1942, Mr. Ridley knew he was in for a bumpy ride when he reported for his first day’s work and found evidence that his presence wasn’t welcome—a job application lying on his desk.