‘Digging into the remorse & sorrow’: The rehabilitation of Douglas Shuman

Douglas S. Shuman (Photo provided)

James and Arunee Shuman were shot and killed by their then 17-year-old son Douglas S. Shuman in their Three Rivers home on the evening of February 12, 1997. While he pled not guilty to charges stemming from the incident all those years ago, Shuman, now 41, has long since accepted responsibility for the murder of his parents.

In the 23 years since, Shuman has walked the long road of rehabilitation, turning “emotional impairment” into “emotional growth,” by “digging into the remorse and sorrow” he has carried during his two-plus decades behind bars.

In a resentencing hearing held in St. Joseph County Circuit Court Thursday, Judge Paul Stutesman reduced Shuman’s minimum sentence — originally set at two concurrent terms of life in prison and two additional years for a felony firearm conviction — to a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of 60 years, and time served for the felony firearm conviction. The Three Rivers native has served approximately 21.8 years of his 25 to 60-year sentence, according to Stutesman, and as a result of Thursday’s ruling could be eligible for parole in a few short years.

“He comes before you your honor — not just as a person who has stopped doing bad things — he has worked hard, put effort toward being a better person,” defense attorney Jacqueline Ouvry said of Shuman Thursday. “He has described his own motivation and process in that growth, and a quote that stuck with me […] is that this process for him has been ‘digging into the remorse and sorrow.’ He’s known that he has to do hard things, there were problems that existed when he was an adolescent that needed to be corrected.”

As a child Shuman was described as immature, impulsive, and detached, and as a teenager in the months leading up to the night he killed his parents, he exhibited “a spiral of (bad) behavior that kept getting tighter,” with stealing checks from his grandfather, and dropping out of school chief among them.

Ouvry said a number of factors, none of which necessarily justify his actions, contributed to that spiral. Shuman’s family “didn’t spend a lot of time on emotions” and “weren’t the hugging type.” Ouvry said, “not only was there evidence of strict discipline” from Shuman’s father but of domestic violence, abuse, and even emotional neglect. A friend of Douglas’ testified at trial in 1997 that when Douglas came to the friend’s home “it was often with evidence of being abused” by way of injuries, and Shuman himself said he was “beaten to unconsciousness” on more than one occasion.

“There is ample evidence that Doug’s father was a controlling figure,” she said. “[…] And there’s further evidence as Doug was growing that emotional attachment, appropriate emotions were not modeled in the Shuman home, particular evidence of difficulty in the relationship between Doug Shuman and his father Jim.”

Sunday school teachers and community members have come forward in the years since the offense, according to Ouvry, saying they wish “they had done more” for Shuman. Adults who knew the family talked about James Shuman “openly saying Doug was an accident” and “he didn’t hold Doug as a baby or toddler,” what Ouvry called “typical signs of love and affection between a parent and a child.” Child Protection Services were called when Douglas Shuman was in the second grade after his father beat him. According to Douglas Shuman’s recollection, a beating granted him the opportunity to stay home, something he did a lot in the second grade.

“When I look at the school records, yes there’s trouble from Doug but his entire second grade year is missing,” Ouvry said. “So those two ideas, that he was allowed to stay home when he was beaten, and there’s no record of his second grade year, leave a lot of questions and some inferences that can be drawn.”

When Shuman was arrested in 1997 he didn’t have a lot of answers about why he killed his parents but today “we have better answers about why this offense occurred,” according to Ouvry. She said those answers, in part, come in the form of the work Shuman has done to become a person who is “conscientious, self aware, and who is connected” to the people and world around him.

“As I said at the beginning your honor, I think rehabilitation is much more than ceasing to do wrong, although that’s a huge part of it,” she said. “But it’s a conscious commitment to do better.”

Ouvry said Shuman recognized what he did was wrong, and there was something in his mental makeup and outward behavior that needed to be addressed, for which he sought out information to address those issues through self-help and psychology-related literature.

“So the child who wasn’t hugged learned how to get into those negative feelings, learned how to explore that and find answers there,” she said. “There is no question Doug has desisted from bad behavior, he has been in the Department of Corrections for 23 years with no violent incidents at all. He’s currently housed in an honor unit, which requires not just no violent tickets but no tickets at all, and he continues to be housed there. This is not the norm, this is not typical behavior for someone who goes to prison as an adolescent or young adult.”

Following Ouvry’s arguments, Shuman was permitted to speak on his behalf. He said every day “for nearly 24 years” he has felt “the pain, the sorrow, and the regret of my decision and my action that took my parents’ lives.”

“My mom and dad did nothing but come home to a place where they felt loved and safe, a place where they could relax and forget the day’s problems. I did something unimaginable as an immature 17-year-old, well more than half my lifetime ago,” Shuman said. “I never want to cause pain or sadness like this again, and I never will.”

Shuman apologized to the people of Three Rivers and his family, and said he wished he could apologize to his grandfather and his aunt, as “they didn’t deserve anything like this in their lives.”

“Today as a 41-year-old man, I realize what I did and I understand it’s never appropriate to take a life,” he said. “I did commit this crime of shooting my parents, I take full responsibility, and I make no excuses for taking the lives of my mom and dad. I’m extremely sorry for the pain I have caused my family and the community. I believe I can be a productive person in a community, I’m very motivated to reach my maximum potential, and live life to the fullest.”

Shuman said he knows the world has changed dramatically since he’s been in prison, and each day could be a struggle but he can “earn redemption by the life I live.”

“Redemption is something I have my entire life to earn. Each day until my life is over I will prove to my community, my family, my lawyer, this court and myself that I am earning that.”

Shuman also apologized to his sister Barbara Morgan who was in attendance Thursday. “I want to apologize to my sister Barbara for taking mom and dad from you, and I’m also sorry you lost your brother to prison. I’m so sorry that I changed the life you should have had. I regret that your children were never able to meet mom and dad, I regret that our family is not around for you to relive memories with or to share your life with. You deserve better from me and I will do better for you. Every day I will work to prove myself to you.”

Morgan said she had “forgiven Doug a long time ago,” and would be grateful if Doug were given an opportunity to reenter society.

“I love my brother.”

Alek Haak-Frost is executive editor of Watershed Voice.