Michael Woodmansee Case: Plea Deal, Early Release, and Civil Commitment

The Michael Woodmansee case is a Rhode Island murder from 1975 in which a teenage neighbor killed five-year-old Jason Foreman, hid the boy’s bones in his bedroom for seven years, and then, after a 1983 guilty plea and a 40-year sentence, became eligible for release in 2011 more than a decade early under the state’s good-time law. Public outrage, a death threat from the victim’s father, and a civil commitment kept him confined, and the legislature rewrote the sentencing credit rules the following year.

The 1975 Murder of Jason Foreman

Jason Foreman, five years old, disappeared from his South Kingstown neighborhood in 1975. He had been stabbed and killed by Michael Woodmansee, a teenager who lived nearby.¹ Woodmansee kept the boy’s bones in a cardboard box in a dresser drawer in his bedroom on Schaeffer Street. The remains were later described as shellacked.²

Officers searched homes in the neighborhood during the original investigation but never searched the Woodmansee house. Michael’s father, Franklin Woodmansee, was a police reservist.³ The case sat unsolved for seven years.

How Police Discovered the Remains

In April 1982, police were questioning Woodmansee, then 23, about the sexual assault and attempted strangulation of a 14-year-old boy from the neighborhood. During that interrogation, Woodmansee began talking about Jason Foreman on his own, and detectives got a warrant for his bedroom. Inside the dresser they found a jaw, a skull, arm and leg bones, and pieces of the spine and ribs. He was charged with first-degree murder in Jason’s death and with assault with intent to murder in the 1982 attack.⁴

Investigators also found a journal in which Woodmansee had written about the murder in graphic detail. South Kingstown Police Chief Vincent Vespia called the writings evidence of a “horrible, horrible crime.” John Foreman, Jason’s father, said police told him the journal described Woodmansee stripping the bones and eating his son’s flesh.⁵

The 1983 Plea Deal and 40-Year Sentence

Woodmansee did not go to trial. In 1983 he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He received 40 years in prison, plus a 10-year suspended sentence and probation, for total supervision of 50 years.⁶⁷ The court sealed the journal because of its content.⁵

John Foreman later said he had agreed to the plea to avoid “the agony of hearing all the evidence at the time,” and called that decision “spineless.”⁸⁶ The prosecutor who handled the case, Susan E. McGuirl, who later became a Superior Court judge, said everyone had known Woodmansee would eventually become eligible for release, but that no one expected he would “earn the maximum good-time credit.”

Why He Was Released 12 Years Early

In March 2011, news broke that Woodmansee would be released that August, 12 years before his 40-year term ended. Rhode Island’s good-time statute, on the books since 1872, allowed inmates to earn up to 10 days off their sentence each month for good behavior, plus additional days for work and programs. A 2008 change added up to five more days per month for participation in classes and programs, pushing the maximum reduction to 17 days a month.⁹ Over almost 29 years, Woodmansee had cut his sentence by roughly a third.

John Foreman’s Death Threat and Public Reaction

On March 7, 2011, John Foreman went on Providence radio station WPRO-AM and said he would kill Woodmansee if he were released. “I do intend, if this man is released anywhere in my vicinity, or if I can find him after the fact, I do intend to kill this man,” he said, calling Woodmansee “a monster” and a “cannibal, who ate his son’s flesh.”⁸¹⁰

Roughly 250 people protested the pending release in Wakefield.¹¹ Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin said he felt “concern and outrage” and directed the Department of Corrections to find any legal path to keep Woodmansee confined.⁶ The Foreman family campaigned for what they called Jason’s Law, gathering signatures to bar violent offenders from receiving good-time reductions.¹²

Civil Commitment Instead of Freedom

Kilmartin had the Department of Corrections commission two forensic psychiatrists to evaluate Woodmansee. A judge gave the psychiatrists access to the sealed journal, his prison records, and in-person interviews.² Both found he met the criteria for involuntary commitment.¹³

On May 27, 2011, on his attorney’s advice, Woodmansee agreed to voluntary commitment at Eleanor Slater Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Cranston.¹⁴ He would be held in a locked facility and reevaluated every six months. He could not leave without state approval, and any attempt to end the commitment would trigger a court hearing on involuntary commitment based on his dangerousness.¹⁵

Woodmansee left the Adult Correctional Institute on September 9, 2011, and was transferred directly to Eleanor Slater. He was reportedly only the second prisoner in Rhode Island memory to be civilly committed on release.¹⁶ He also remained under Department of Corrections supervision for the balance of his 50-year sentence, meaning 22 years of probation, with the 10-year suspended sentence hanging over any violation.⁷

The 2012 Law the Case Produced

The legislature took up the issue after the case broke. Representative Teresa Tanzi filed a bill on behalf of the attorney general to strip violent offenders of good-time eligibility. When the initial proposal proved hard to draft, the General Assembly sent the question to the Criminal Justice Oversight Commission for study.¹⁷

On May 30, 2012, lawmakers passed a bill barring inmates convicted of murder, attempted murder, first-degree sexual assault, kidnapping of a minor, and first- or second-degree child molestation from earning sentence credit just for staying out of trouble. Those offenders can still reduce their sentences, but only by participating in rehabilitative, educational, or substance abuse programs. Before the change, inmates could earn up to 10 days a month simply for avoiding disciplinary problems.¹⁷

Where Woodmansee Is Now

In a 2021 report, the Providence Journal said Eleanor Slater Hospital administrators would not confirm whether Woodmansee was still a patient, citing state and federal privacy laws. City voting records, however, still listed the hospital’s address as his residence as of the previous November’s election, indicating he remained committed there.¹⁸

1
CBS News. Michael Woodmansee Update: John Foreman Reveals New Details of Crime
2
CBS News. Psychiatrists to Review Journal of R.I. Child Killer on Verge of Release
3
RI Central. Woodmansee Faces Possible Early Release
4
UPI. Bones of Missing Boy Believed Found in Neighbor’s Dresser Drawer
5
ABC News. Child Killer Michael Woodmansee’s Journal Confined
6
NBC News. Convicted Child Killer Released From R.I. Prison
7
The Independent. Woodmansee Early Release
8
ABC News. Child Killer Michael Woodmansee Early Release: Victim’s Father Responds
9
PolitiFact. Correctional Officer Says Rhode Island Has Nation’s Most Generous Good Time Law
10
CBS News. Could Dad’s Threat to Killer Get Dad in Trouble?
11
CBS News. Hundreds Protest Child Killer’s Pending Release in R.I.
12
Patch. Family of Woodmansee Victim, Local Reps to Host Petition Signing
13
ABC News. Child Killer Woodmansee Committed After Prison Release
14
State of Rhode Island. Attorney General Announces Woodmansee Voluntary Commitment
15
WJAR. Woodmansee Agrees to Voluntary Commitment
16
CBS News. Convicted Child Killer Released From R.I. Prison 11 Years Early
17
Rhode Island General Assembly. Rep. Tanzi Op-Ed on Good Time Reform
18
Providence Journal. Michael Woodmansee, Eleanor Slater Hospital Reorganization Plan