Ohio man freed from prison despite never serving 13-year sentence

Ohio man freed from prison despite never serving 13-year sentence

Cornealious "Mike" Anderson spent 13 years free from prison due to a clerical error, then nearly a year behind bars when the mistake was caught. On Monday, he walked out of a southeast Missouri courtroom a free man again — this time with no need to look over his shoulder.

He committed / assisted in an armed robbery when he was 23 years old. His court trial ended up with him being sentenced to 13 years in prison. Through a weird set of circumstances, he reported to prison and was turned away, as no record was present ordering the incarceration. He tried several more times to report to police with no luck.

So he stopped.

He started his own business...
He got married...
He had children...
he volunteered at his church...
he was a coach at the school...

In another weird set of twists and turns the initial error had been corrected. When he had contact with law enforcement the warrant was present and he was arrested and returned to Mississippi county Missouri.

The end result stunned me - what did the judge do?

Mississippi County Associate Circuit Judge Terry Lynn Brown needed just a 10-minute hearing before ruling that he was giving Anderson credit for time served for all 4,794 days between his conviction and when he was arrested last year. The judge granted Anderson his immediate freedom.

The judge went further -

"He has been able to accomplish for himself what the criminal justice system does not accomplish in many situations," Megaro told the judge.

Brown agreed. He pointed out that Anderson's crime was serious, but acknowledged that he's a far different man now than he was then.
"You've been a good father," Brown said. "You've been a good husband. You've been a good taxpaying citizen of the state of Missouri.
"That leads me to believe that you are a good man and a changed man."

The States response / position -

Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement, "From the outset, I have proposed a solution that balances the seriousness of Mr. Anderson's crime with the mistake made by the criminal justice system and Mr. Anderson's lack of a criminal record over the past 13 years. Today's outcome appears to appropriately balance the facts as we understand them."

Then the judge did this -

The judge said that rather than grant parole, Anderson would get credit for the entirety of the time he should have been in prison. The distinction is important because it means Anderson doesn't have to report to a parole agent.

Click link for remainder of article.

With the state our world is in today its nice to find some good does occur. Its nice to see a person turn their life around and have a positive impact on society. Its refreshing to see the judicial system exercise common sense and balance out the pros and cons.

just wanted to share...

"Go home to your family, Mr. Anderson," Brown said after his ruling.

I'm happy for this man and his family, it wasn't like he was hiding from the law they screwed up and he changed his life for the better.

a reply to: Xcathdra

With the state our world is in today its nice to find some good does occur. Its nice to see a person turn their life around and have a positive impact on society. Its refreshing to see the judicial system exercise common sense and balance out the pros and cons.

just wanted to share...

Glad you did. If the guy tried on numerous occasions to turn himself in, and clearly has turned his life around I see absolutely no good in forcing him to carry out the sentence. Doing so would drastically impact his children's life, force him to start over at square on after getting out of jail etc.

Frankly, I think constantly being worried about being picked up would be punishment enough considering the guy obviously started making the right choices.

a reply to: Xcathdra

As far as I am concerned. Justice has been done.

The guy turned his life around.

Judge made the right call. The state screwed up, and there is no point in taking a working, tax-paying man out of society and putting him in prison now. He would likely come out a new criminal.

Judge is correct about Prison not being conducive to rehabilitation, in most cases.

The original article I read (which is not stated in this one) is that he used a BB gun in the robbery, which tells me his intent was not to really harm anyone if it came down to shooting someone for the money.

I'm glad he went free. As a previous poster stated, just the anxiety waiting for them to show up to haul him off was probably punishment enough for this man. For others, no, but for him... yes.

I'm glad he turned himself around and became such a great person.

Completely agree with the posts above.

I was thinking if this guys situation could be used as an example to start to change how our judicial system works. Granted its not appropriate for everyone however this guy had something hat helped him turn it around.

The AG and the courts also found something that brought them to the right decision.

I wonder if they can put their heads together to find a possible experimental hybrid punishment system that is geared towards rehabilitation / assisting in finding opportunities with reward and risk built in.

Its obvious the system we have now does not work so there cant be any harm in looking for something different is there?

a reply to: Xcathdra

I wonder if they can put their heads together to find a possible experimental hybrid punishment system that is geared towards rehabilitation / assisting in finding opportunities with reward and risk built in.

It would be nice to see. I don't know why we think that locking someone up for 13 years with few opportunities to better themselves and then cutting them loose on the side of the road with essentially nothing is going to in anyway deter the rate of recidivism which in my opinion is more important than punishment for most offenders.

Norwegian Prison System Article

While I disagree with not having a life sentence, it sounds like they are doing something right if the reoffending numbers are to be believed.

If the point is to rehabilitate, he shouldn't have served one more day. If the point is to spend taxpayer money, justify the police state or make a political/social point, well then, by all means, lock him back up.

Gives me hope that there is still some actual justice left in the world.

a reply to: Xcathdra

S&F X-Cat, not just for bringing this update to the forum, but on your position on it as well.

What an awesome example of sensible judgement. The judge seems like a genuine man of justice. Given that the justice system is aimed at increasing public safety and bringing some kind of justice to society, the judge took the right actions in this case, (IMO).

There were some calling for the man to serve his entire sentence. This I think would have been a disaster. The victim, if I recall correctly, themselves said they didn't want to see him go to jail over this. His kids would have been affected terribly and it would have destroyed his family unit. Not only that, but who knows what spending time in jail now (after all he's done to change his life), all because of a mix up, would do to his personality and belief system, his mental stability... In other words, sending him away now could bring greater risk to public safety and cause much more harm than him not going in.

It's almost a little ironic that a failure in the system led to the desirable results seen. I'm sure that would not be the case with everyone of course, but kudos to the judge for treating the man as a human being and taking into account everything he's done to improve his life. What a good example it sets for his kids and other people in the community. I'm sure his brothers at the church are happy to hear the decision.

a reply to: boncho

Thanx..

sent you a pm

S&F!

This is truly awesome!

Well done to the judge and good luck to Mr Anderson ... who by mere fate shares Neo's namesake and likewise seems to have escaped the Matrix.

a reply to: Xcathdra
While he deserved prison 13 years ago, he was a changed man. Nothing would have been served by throwing him in prison at this point. I mean, doesn't it seem unfair to sandbag the guy after this much time? They let him go, good.

I completely agree with the judges decision.

I'm proud for this guy. He was likely heading down a dark and bad path. He got his wake up call from God and HE made the decision to change his life. It's not hard...people have choices. I hope this man can be an inspiration to the black community that you can put your life on the right track. You don't have to sell drugs or commit crime. They always say that is what they had to do...no that is not what you had to do, it's what you chose to do because it was the easy way out.

Also a great call by the judge to recognize a changed man.

I heard the interview of this man after he was arrested. He said that he had been pulled over a couple of times and that he had been in contact with law enforcement on other occasions. Every time he said that he was literally shaking In fear that they would take him away from his family, and yet each time his past was never brought up. In the interview he said that it was when the prison received his release papers that they finally figured it out.

Very encouraging story, he stated that he wished he had turned himself in when he didn't have a family to support.