ST. PAUL — Minnesota Republican leaders said Friday they would hold hearings into the state corrections commissioner’s decisions to grant parole to four convicted killers this year.

Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and House Speaker Kurt Zellers sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton expressing “grave concern” about the paroles. They said legislative public safety committees would call Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy to testify and asked Dayton to ensure his appointee appears.

Corrections spokesman John Schadl says Roy intends to attend the hearings.

The paroles gained notice this week in a published report by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis focused on Timothy Eling, who was sentenced to life in the 1982 killing of a suburban police officer.

Koch and Zellers wrote that the newspaper’s report “raises far too many unanswered questions about the recent and what we believe are unprecedented decisions made by Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy.”

Two of the four murderers paroled by Roy, including Eling, remain in prison to serve time for other offenses.

Dayton spokeswoman Katie Tinucci said Friday that the governor personally supports imprisoning people who kill law enforcement officers to life without the chance for parole.

“However that was not the law when Mr. Eling was sentenced,” Tinucci said.

Minnesota has had a system of fixed sentences since 1980, but Schadl has said there are still 468 offenders in state prisons who have or will become eligible for parole at some point.