As some people described the worst days of their lives and others begged for forgiveness, Hal Nash sat quietly throughout his first day of parole hearings in Montgomery.

Nash, who most recently worked as the former chief corrections deputy for Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, didn’t vote on any of the eight parole and pardon hearings on Tuesday morning. But, as he sat on the right side of the dais, he listened to people both advocating and opposing parole and watched his colleagues work.

After listening to testimony in the first set of cases, Nash spoke to the crowded room.

“I’ve not had an opportunity to review any of these cases,” he said softly. “And therefore, I’m not voting on any of these cases because of that. It would be extremely unfair to not be prepared,” he said.

Nash added that he would spend the week observing and getting familiar with the job.

When asked by AL.com, Nash said he strived to be a fair leader.

“It would be totally unfair to inject myself into a voting process that I have no background on the individuals coming up before us,” he said.

“And to me that’s not fair. And this board’s going to strive to be very fair.”

Gov. Kay Ivey appointed Nash to the seat last week, replacing controversial chairperson Leigh Gwathney.

The governor wanted a “tough-on-crime, fair and pro-law enforcement candidate with leadership experience” to ensure public safety, according to a press release from Ivey’s office last week.

“Hal Nash is well-equipped to maintain the Board’s effectiveness in performing that task,” said Ivey. “He has a law enforcement perspective, and he has assured me he will approach each decision fairly and with that top goal in mind, which is to keep the people of Alabama safe.”

The announcement came via email after Gwathney’s seat expired on June 30. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall publicly supported Gwathney, a former prosecutor, and had asked the governor to reappoint her despite “unprecedented and unwarranted criticism by the liberal media.”

Gwathney was the most frequent ‘no’ vote on the board. She had been the focus for questions from both sides of the political aisle about why Alabama’s parole rate dropped so low in the past few years, and why the board was only letting out a fraction of people that their own guidelines recommended for release.

In 2023, the board granted parole for just 8% of eligible inmates as Alabama all but stopped releasing eligible prisoners. Under public scrutiny, the board ended 2024 with a 20% grant rate and is on track for a 21% grant rate this year.

On Tuesday morning, Nash was silent throughout the hearings with one exception, when he asked a single question to a woman seeking a pardon for a 1996 murder conviction.

The woman, who was currently on parole, shook as she admitted guilt and sought remorse for suffocating a woman nearly 20 years ago. She talked about her current job at a ministry and her daily routine.

When it was his turn, Nash asked the woman what she did on her last off day.

She bought clothes for the hearing, the woman explained. And then she bathed her dog, called her friends and prayed.

“The way people spend their free time says a lot about them,” Nash said.

Ultimately, she wasn’t pardoned. The board recommended she reapply in two years.

Overall, the morning of eight hearings ended with six denials. One man was granted medical parole, and one woman was pardoned for a manslaughter conviction.