Armed robber never told to report to prison...

[Deleted]

news.yahoo.com/armed-robber-never-told-report-prison-195146743.html

ST. LOUIS (AP) — After he was convicted of armed robbery in 2000, Cornealious Anderson was sentenced to 13 years behind bars and told to await instructions on when and where to report to prison. But those instructions never came.

So Anderson didn't report. He spent the next 13 years turning his life around — getting married, raising three kids, learning a trade. He made no effort to conceal his identity or whereabouts. Anderson paid taxes and traffic tickets, renewed his driver's license and registered his businesses.

Not until last year did the Missouri Department of Corrections discover the clerical error that kept him free. Now he's fighting for release, saying authorities missed their chance to incarcerate him.

In a single day last July, Anderson's life was turned upside-down.

"They sent a SWAT team to his house," Anderson's attorney, Patrick Megaro, said Wednesday. "He was getting his 3-year-old daughter breakfast, and these men with automatic weapons bang on his door."

Anderson, 37, was taken to Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Mo., to begin serving the sentence. A court appeal filed in February asks for him to be freed.

Anderson had just one arrest for marijuana possession on his record when he and a cousin robbed an assistant manager for a St. Charles Burger King restaurant on Aug. 15, 1999. The men, wearing masks, showed a gun (it turned out to be a BB gun) and demanded money that was about to be placed in a deposit box.

The worker gave up the bag of cash, and the masked men drove away. The worker turned in the car's license plate number.

Anderson was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison and waited for word on what to do next.

"His attorney said, 'Listen, they're going to get you some day, so just wait for the order,'" Megaro said. "As time goes by, the order never comes. What does a normal person believe? Maybe they forgot about it. It's only human nature to hope they just let it go. He really didn't know what to do.

"A year goes by, two years, five years, 10 years. He's thinking, 'I guess they don't care about me anymore,'" Megaro said.

So Anderson went about his life. Megaro said he was not a fugitive, was never on the run. In fact, just the opposite.

Megaro described Anderson as a model citizen — a married father who became a carpenter and started three businesses. He paid income and property taxes and kept a driver's license showing his true name and address. When he was pulled over for a couple of traffic violations, nothing showed up indicating he should be in prison.

That's why Anderson was shocked when the marshals arrived.

He now lives among the general population at Charleston. Megaro said Anderson is holding his own— barely.

"He's doing his best to keep his spirits up," Megaro said. "Each day that goes by, more hope is lost. It's a daily struggle for him."

Peter Joy, director of the Criminal Justice Clinic at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said it isn't unusual in a country with such a high prison population for sentences to fall through the cracks. What is unusual, Joy said, is for it to go unnoticed for so long.

"The real tragedy here is that one aspect of prison is the idea of rehabilitation," Joy said. "Here we have somebody who has led a perfect life for 13 years. He did everything right. So he doesn't need rehabilitation."

What happens next isn't clear. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster on Tuesday filed a court response that said the state is justified in making Anderson serve the sentence.

However, Koster wrote that Megaro could refile the case as an action against the director of the Department of Corrections, which could give Anderson credit for the time he was technically at large.

Megaro doubted that strategy would work. He said the law does not allow credit for time served when the convicted person was not behind bars.

"I don't think that's an option, unfortunately," Megaro said.

Instead, he's relying on case law. The last time anything like this happened in Missouri was 1912. In that case, the convicted man was set free, Megaro said.

Gov. Jay Nixon could also commute the sentence. A spokesman for Nixon declined to comment.

What do you think?  Make him serve his time now or release him?

[Deleted]

I would not want him in prison. What a waste of resources. Make him do tons of community service and give back, don't lock him up.

Prison system in US is so broken

[justjen]

I heard the This American Life on this case. It's so heartbreaking, but I really don't see what good comes of keeping him locked up. His poor kids

[Deleted]

I don't think he's entirely without blame. He knew he was supposed to go to prison, and anyone with common sense knows that this stuff always comes back to bite you in the ass.

But at this point it seems like a pretty big waste of resources.

[starlily]

I think his original attorney gave him really bad advice.

[beachygal]

Apr 17, 2014 7:20:05 GMT -5 justjen said:

I heard the This American Life on this case. It's so heartbreaking, but I really don't see what good comes of keeping him locked up. His poor kids

Here's a link to the story from This American Life (it's call "Run On Sentence"):

www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/518/except-for-that-one-thing

Very interesting story, and worth a listen.

ETA: Even the manager at the Burger King (you know, the guy him robbed at gunpoint) has forgiven him. I realize that doesn't really matter, but it is telling.

[teatimefor2]

I don't think he should go to prison. It would be a waste of resources. I think he should to community service- yes he was convicted, but the state really messed up and there was nothing in the system. He was pulled over for traffic infractions and gave his true details- the error lies with the state. He should do community service working with troubled youths.

[gibbinator]

I agree at this point, if he really has rehab himself, it seems like a waste of resources. Lots of community service, probation, etc would be more appropriate at this point. Clearly it's not ok for him to just go Scott free.

[whitepicketfence]

I don't think he's entirely without fault in this case, but I agree that incarcerating him now would be a huge waste of resources. I think community service would be an excellent alternative.

[ECB]

THey need to release him. he turned his life around. That should count for somehting. He's probably a better citizen now for NOT going to prison than he would have been if he had served his sentence.

[crashgizmo]

I'm actually struggling a little with the severity of his original sentence- 13 years for a practically first time offense with a BB gun? Rapists and child molesters get less time than that. Talk about a broken system.

[lemons]

I read that article yesterday and it's hard to believe it took 13 years. There has to be a 5 or 10 year limit on "errors" or something. This is crazy and that they sent a SWAT team to his house is insane! Surely when he received tickets, it should have been on his record. On the other hand, he probably should have checked in about the letter, too, since he didn't receive one.

[les]

Echoing the sentiments of others, I think community service would be a reasonable expectation at this time. He is no longer an imminent danger to society and locking him behind bars would be unproductive.

[starlily]

Apr 17, 2014 10:43:43 GMT -5 lemons said:

I read that article yesterday and it's hard to believe it took 13 years. There has to be a 5 or 10 year limit on "errors" or something. This is crazy and that they sent a SWAT team to his house is insane! Surely when he received tickets, it should have been on his record. On the other hand, he probably should have checked in about the letter, too, since he didn't receive one.

Without going into all the details, there is a particular type of legal motion addressing timeliness with regard to recovering someone who is on warrant status. I feel that he will ultimately prevail, but they really should have let him remain out of custody while this whole thing gets sorted out.

How this happened is so odd to me. In my area if someone doesn't get sentenced forthwith at the time if plea or conviction, they are always given a date, on the record, to surrender themselves to start custody. I hope that jurisdiction has changed its practices in the last thirteen years.

[glynn]

Community Service would be so much better in this case.