Movie star Ethan Hawke has offered his support to a convicted killer serving a 30-year jail sentence for murdering a police officer at the request of his mother Leslie. The Training Day star has written to New Jersey's acting governor Richard Codey asking him to grant clemency to 65-year-old Melvina McClain, who has been in prison for more than 16 years after murdering her boyfriend, Det. Louis Glenn in 1986. Hawke, who calls McClain "a woman important to my family", has requested Codey commute the imprisoned pensioner's life sentence "so she can live the last years of her life helping her children, her grandchildren and many others learn from her example of redemption." Hawke claims a long history of abuse in McClain's life led her the killing. Hawke explains his mother befriended McClain before she was jailed and the two women have become pen pals. The actor's letter to Codey comes as the governor considers a clemency petition, which has the backing of the state Office of the Public Defender and claims McClain suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming from a lifetime of psychological and physical abuse
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