TOPEKA — Michael McCloud was overwhelmed with joy when he learned he wouldn’t have to return to prison for the rest of his life.
Gov. Laura Kelly announced Thursday she would commute or pardon the sentences of McCloud and seven others based on an exhaustive review of more than 200 applicants for clemency.
“This is a very strange feeling,” McCloud said. “Tomorrow’s the first day of the rest of my life. The depression can be gone. You’re free to do what you want to do. You don’t have this hanging over you anymore.”
Kelly said she was making good on a campaign promise to review the criminal justice system and identify people who shouldn’t be incarcerated.
Her use of clemency appears to be unprecedented in recent Kansas history. The past four governors combined took advantage of this rarely used power just nine times, mostly as they prepared to leave office.
“There is some political risk in doing this,” the governor said. “Your opponent, given the opportunity, can and will use it against you if somebody you pardon does something wrong. So I think governors tend to weigh the political risk pretty heavily, because there is a downside.”
Still, she said, “we have to realize that we’re dealing with human beings here.”
McCloud’s story “popped out,” the governor said, as she reviewed candidates for clemency.
The Wichita resident has enjoyed a peaceful life since 2018, when he was released after 27 years in prison for a series of armed robberies that netted him a total of about $6,000. At the state prison in Lansing, he was a model inmate — never disciplined, working a minimum wage job to pay back his victims, portraying Santa Claus when families visited at Christmas, and organizing donations for a local women’s shelter.
Still, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe asked the district court to send him back to prison, arguing that a judge mistakenly reduced his sentence. Howe eventually supported McCloud’s request for clemency, but the 67-year-old still faced an additional 21 years behind bars before a chance at parole.
“He was going to be put back in prison on a technicality, not on anything he had done,” Kelly said. “That seemed wrong, completely unnecessary, not fair to him, and not in the state’s best interest.”
Staff with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas applauded the governor’s announcement. The organization at the start of the pandemic began working to help incarcerated Kansans navigate the cumbersome application process, and eventually helped 108 clients file for clemency. The governor granted three of their requests.
“We’re grateful that the governor’s office is actually taking a close look at these applications,” said ACLU legal director Sharon Brett. “And obviously, we hope this is just the beginning of additional releases that will come through the executive clemency power. We think many more people are deserving.”
Kansas correctional institutions currently house more than 8,600 people.
KIMBERLY Caldwell, a pastor in Houston, can’t wait to wrap her arms around her son, thank God for his release, and remind him of the work he needs to finish.
