Judge shaves two years off March sentence

Parole now possible in 2040

Email | Print By E. Thomas Wood

Convicted wife-murderer Perry March has gotten two years shaved off of his sentence for a charge of stealing from his father-in-law's law firm. The state now must let him out when he is 99, not when he is 101.

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ruled yesterday that Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier, in sentencing March for a 2006 theft conviction, "erroneously applied an enhancement factor – that the defendant abused a position of trust – to lengthen his sentence from the presumptive sentence of three years to five years."

After three separate criminal trials, Dozier sentenced the former Nashville attorney in 2006 to a total of 56 years in prison for murdering his wife Janet, conspiring to kill her parents Lawrence and Carolyn Levine, and misappropriating money from Larry Levine's law firm.

A Department of Correction Web site currently shows that March's sentence will end on Jan. 20, 2062 – six days after his 101st birthday – with parole possible on May 9, 2040. Yesterday's ruling appears to shave two years off of each of those dates.