My 75-year-old client died in prison. Gov. Cooper’s clemency process failed him.
The corrections officer tried to squeeze my 75-year-old client through the door in his wheelchair. When the chair would not fit, the officer lifted him up and placed him on a backless stool. After 10 minutes, he was too weak to talk and after simply asking me to help him go home, he asked to end the visit early so he could rest.
My client was terminally ill, but we did not know how sick he was. A student and I were visiting him because we’ve been working for more than a year to secure his release due to his age and poor health.
In September 2020, we sought clemency from Gov. Roy Cooper because of my client’s elevated risk from COVID-19. The Governor’s Clemency Office responded, saying clemency would be considered but after months with no response we wrote again in January 2021. We explained that our client’s health was deteriorating; he was now wheelchair-bound after falling from a stroke and had recent prostate surgery.
The Governor’s Clemency Office responded, this time saying the governor would not consider clemency for parole-eligible people, contradicting the recommendation from his own Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice to prioritize commutation reviews for “parole-eligible incarcerated people who would have been released years ago if they have served the minimum sentence under the Structured Sentencing Act.”
My client served decades beyond what he would receive under that Act. He was convicted of rape and certainly deserved significant punishment, yet his 46 years of imprisonment was far longer than many sentences for murder convictions. His prison record also demonstrates the harshness of continued incarceration — over 46 years he only two infractions in prison, the second of which he received in 1998, 23 years ago.
Tragically, my client died in late November. On Nov. 18, I wrote the new Secretary of the Department of Public Safety Eddie Buffaloe, copying the governor, imploring them to show mercy. I did not ask for unconditional release, rather only that my client be released under an existing program allowing terminally ill people to serve their sentence outside of prison under conditions set by the Department when they do not pose a risk to public safety. As far as showing mercy, this was a modest request.
During this season of goodwill, generally recognized by the religious and non-religious alike, we all should consider whether lengthy sentences without the possibility for redemption are consistent with our beliefs. Every major faith tradition holds mercy as a core principle, yet the abandonment of mercy pervades our prison system.
The Bible says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36). And the Catholic Bible asks directly, “If one has no mercy toward another like himself, can he then seek pardon for his own sins?” (Sirach 28:4). The answer to this question may ultimately decide how we all are judged given the absence of mercy we accept.
If the call for mercy alone does not persuade you, consider the cost to taxpayers to house and care for a person serving a 46-year prison sentence, which, by a conservative estimate, far exceeds a million dollars even before taking into account the cost of medical care.
Is incarcerating a terminally ill, wheelchair bound 75-year-old how the state should spend its resources? When considering this question, think about the fact that North Carolina’s incarceration rate is higher than every country in the world other than the U.S.
My client deserved to be punished following his conviction, but he did not deserve to be behind prison walls for the remaining 46 years of his life. And no one deserves to die the way he did, alone in a prison hospital with his family unaware of his grave condition. They were not told until after he died.