Man jailed 13 years after sentence...
..asks family to 'keep praying; keep hope'.
Cornealious "Mike" Anderson has plenty of time to think. He spends most of his day locked in a cell in Missouri’s Southeast Correctional Center, pining for his family and wishing he could wake up from what feels like a nightmare.
-snip-
Anderson’s case has garnered national media attention because its circumstances are so unusual. Back in 1999, Anderson helped rob a Burger King assistant manager in St. Charles, Mo., with what turned out to be a BB gun. In May 2000 he got convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 13 years in prison — but because of a clerical error, he never did the time.
He went on to become a law-abiding, happily married man with four children. After training as a carpenter, Anderson started small businesses and built his own home from the ground up. On the weekends, he volunteered at his church, went fishing, fixed up old cars and helped his kids prepare for their spelling tests — “just normal, everyday, good stuff,” he told Snow.
-snip-
Late last year, Anderson’s lawyer Patrick Megaro filed a writ of habeas corpus on Anderson's behalf, arguing that incarcerating him now after so many years constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster countered by arguing Anderson “took advantage” of the situation and is at fault for not turning himself in.
On Monday, May 5, a circuit court hearing is scheduled in Charleston, Mo., to consider a new petition on Anderson’s behalf. The petition seeks to require the Missouri Department of Corrections to credit Anderson for the 13 years he was technically at large.
Koster told NBC News in a statement that his goal was to suggest a way for the court to balance the seriousness of the crime, the clerical error and Anderson's life in the years since the crim
http://www.today.com/news/man-jailed-13-years-after-sentence-asks-family-keep-praying-2D79605282
____________________________________________________________________________
Please read the complete story. Do you think this man has turned his life around, became a part of a loving, caring family, and can be a roll model to his children? I do. Don't make him serve the sentence now when it was the state that made the error that released him so many years ago.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Weirdly the NBC reporter wouldn't say what specific jail he was in 
like it was super secret
He appears to be a regular kind of good guy. He said it was a wake up for him and he made the best of it. If he HAD been in jail would he be institutions lizard at ghost point? Basically growing up in prison and probably having adopted that culture?
I could have sworn that in the telecast the reporter said, "...a Federal maximum security prison..."
Anyway, just let him go
Last edited Thu May 1, 2014, 06:13 PM - Edit history (1)
"He then waited and waited and waited for the Missouri Department of Corrections to give him a date to surrender and begin his serving his sentence,’’ Anderson’s attorney, Patrick Michael Megaro, told TODAY. “That day never came." The state mistakenly believed Anderson was already in prison serving his sentence, when in fact he was living life on the outside.
"He got married, had children, opened a successful business, coached youth football, (and) joined a church group,’’ Magaro said...“Did everything that you would expect a normal person to do because in his mind, he believed that maybe the courts had changed their mind." link
And it didn't occur to either Anderson his lawyers to find out what what going on? That can't go unpunished, but Anderson's good behavior (including not fleeing) shouldn't go uncredited, either (though I doubt that he told his then-fiance that he might be carted off to jail at any minute).
In terms of a equitable solution, and assuming that Missourians must serve one-third of their sentence to qualify for parole, I suggest he serve one third of the sentence -- 52 months.
rocktivity
if only because the alternative was risking disbarment.
Besides -- irony of ironies -- if they'd done the right thing, he'd be getting out about now anyway. If not sooner with good behavior.
rocktivity
BEFORE she became his wife (which he didn't do according to the video on this page), WOULD she have become his wife?
rocktivity
rocktivity
making parole on first attempt due to remorse and good behavior, and going on to be an upstanding citizen -- only in a slightly different order.
rocktivity
WTF, Missouri DoC? Can't you see this fellow has fully rehabilitated himself, and more!?!?
Damn. Just damn. 
I believe the medical term for it is "MATURITY."
And all the lawyers involved ought to be disbarred for not knowing that Anderson wasn't in jail. Everybody spent 13 years with their mouths shut and their fingers crossed, hoping it would go away? The court can't ignore that.
rocktivity
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...
Anderson was 23 when he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in the robbery of a fast-food restaurant's assistant manager. He told The Associated Press last month that he waited, and even asked about going to prison, but the order never came. In the years since his conviction, Anderson started his own construction-related businesses, married and had children. He also coached youth football and volunteered at his church in Webster Groves, Missouri.
At the hearing Monday, Anderson's attorney, Patrick Megaro, said Anderson remained out of prison through no fault of his own, and in the intervening years, turned his life around. "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...
rocktivity
