The charge is a serious one as indicated by his sentence. Generally, any offender taking the case to trial probably got a harsher sentence than those that plead guilty (and took responsibility). The parole board will be looking for contrition, meaning at some point your fiance will have to tell them that he is sorry for what he did, he knows what he did was wrong and basically "fall on his sword" in the hearing.
Our opinion is that for this type of crime and sentence there is very little chance that they will entertain a parole is if there has been significant time served, a lot of internal programming completed, full contrition and some faithful assurance that by setting him free, they will not have to worry about another crime committed. We are not optimistic that a "life in prison" sentence will see parole for a decent amount of time.
He may have a better chance of re-sentencing under a motion called "Disparity in Sentencing" where a post-conviction attorney can use the sentence of the other defendants (assuming they got a lot less) as a reason for less time. If it is the identical crime, the appellate courts might see a prejudice in the sentencing for taking the case to trial.
https://www.inmateaid.com/ask-the-inmate/my-fiance-is-coming-up-on-his-first-parole-hearing-in-january-2016he-was-sentence-to-life-in-prison-with-the-possibility-of-parole-my-question-is-because-he-was-sentence-for-murder-because-he-was-the-only-one-out-of-5-people-to-decide-to-go-to-trial-inste#answer
Accepted Answer Date Created: September 10,2015