There were protests on Monday at the office of New York’s State Parole Board in Albany after a prisoner was found dead at Fishkill Correctional Facility on Thursday. Seventy-year-old John MacKenzie reportedly hung himself days after being denied parole. MacKenzie had been in prison since 1975 after being sentenced to 25 years to life for killing a police officer during a robbery. MacKenzie first became eligible for parole in 2000. Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court held the Parole Board in contempt of court for failing to acknowledge his remorse and rehabilitation. This is MacKenzie’s lawyer, Kathy Manley, reading a letter from his daughter, Danielle, at Monday’s protest.

Kathy Manley: “Many people have been positively influenced by my father and all the great work he did while incarcerated—something ignored by the Parole Board. Despite the odds, John MacKenzie found his own path to rehabilitation in the face of great adversity. He overcame. He did what was right. The Parole Board did not. They did not recognize his remorse. They chose to ignore his rehabilitation. And instead they focused on negativity, punishment and hate. Therefore, the Parole Board should be charged with my father’s death.”

More than 9,500 people over the age of 50 are held in New York’s prisons. Two-thirds are eligible for parole.