The Texas Department of Criminal Justice lists Chante Mallard’s parole eligibility date as March 4, 2027, and says she is not scheduled for release at this time. Eligibility means parole may be considered; it does not mean release has been approved. TDCJ’s inmate record gives the date and current release status.
TDCJ says Mallard is in the parole review process. For a first review, the process begins about six months before eligibility, and the board normally votes shortly before that date. The agency says review files can include appropriate documents such as letters of support and protest. Those procedures describe how a review is handled; they do not establish what the board will decide in Mallard’s case. TDCJ’s review information does not state a decision to release her.
The evidence that led to the conviction
Mallard’s case turned in part on a question central to the murder charge: whether Gregory Glenn Biggs remained alive after the collision and might have been saved. At about 3 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2001, Mallard struck the 37-year-old in Fort Worth. She drove home with Biggs trapped in the windshield and did not call for help, according to trial coverage by CBS News.
At trial, medical experts testified that Biggs survived for one or two hours and probably could have lived with treatment, CBS News reported. The defense argued that his death was an accident; the prosecution’s case included evidence about how long he remained alive. These were trial claims and testimony, not a finding that the parole board must now make.
A jury convicted Mallard of murder, taking less than an hour to reach its verdict; Mallard had pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, The New York Times reported. She received 50 years for murder and a concurrent 10-year sentence for tampering. Her 2027 eligibility date therefore marks a point at which parole can be considered—not a scheduled end to that sentence.
What remains undecided
TDCJ’s listing provides an eligibility date and says Mallard is not scheduled for release; it does not give the outcome of her review. Until the board makes and records a decision, the distinction between being eligible for parole and being granted parole remains decisive.
