Judge frees inmate who spent 36 years in prison for stealing $50
A petty thief sentenced to life in prison without parole for stealing $50 was finally released after spending 36 years in prison.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered Alvin Kennard, 58, to be freed from Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bassemer, Arkansas.
Kennard was convicted of first-degree robbery in 1983 when his was 22-years-old after he robbed a bakery of $50.75.
He was arrested and sentenced under Alabama’s old Habitual Felony Offender Act, known as the ‘three strikes law.’
Kennard had previously been sentenced to three years of probation for three counts of burglary, which stemmed from a single incident in 1979. The bakery robbery was his fourth conviction – which meant life in prison without parole.
After Wednesday’s hearing, Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff Circuit Judge David Carpenter resentenced Kennart to time served and ordered his release.
Before he learned of his release, Kennard told the judge: ‘I’m sorry for what I did…I was wrong,’ adding that if he was released, he would live with his family and become a carpenter.
Prosecutors did not appose the resentencing. Assistant District Attorney Lane Tolbert said: ‘Let me be clear, this is not about $50,’ according to AL.com.
Former RuPaul's Drag Race judge Lucian Piane 'arrested at gunpoint for trespassing'Kennard did not simply become a free man on Wednesday. He still must be processed out by the Alabama Department of Corrections. It is unclear how long that process will take.
Carla Crowder, Kennard’s attorney, said her client had been living in the faith dorm at the prison and has shown ‘exemplary behavior’ while in prison. Crowder said he had gone 14 years without a prison disciplinary.
When the judge asked who would support Kennard upon his release, more than a dozen family members and friends stood up in the court room.