Michigan, USA
After having spent 60 of the last 80 years of his life in prison, William Hunt expected to die behind bars following a decades-old murder conviction for a crime he has always maintained he didn’t commit.
Instead, he walked out a free man, Tuesday, after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer commuted his life sentence.
Hunt was sentenced on a first-degree murder charge in 1967 for a crime that he and advocates say he wasn’t responsible for. Michael Thompson, founder of the Michael Thompson Clemency Project, said at the time of Whitmer’s decision that Hunt was convicted because he was blamed for a crime his brother committed.
Hunt’s sentence was commuted in July, but he walked out of prison only this week. His family was waiting for him, Tuesday, when Hunt left the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility.
He told reporters outside that in 1967, when he was transferred to prison, guards were told to “break him.” But they didn’t break him, he said, “and never will.”
“I said that if I ever got out, I’m going to talk to young kids and try and kick them out of the games, out of the street, you know?” Hunt said. “And fortunately, I got that chance to go do, and I still have that mindset.”
Hunt met Thompson while he was serving his own time in prison, having been sentenced to 25 years for a nonviolent marijuana offense.
In July, Thompson posted a video celebrating Whitmer’s decision and thanking her.
“He stayed in there 60 years, even after his brother passed away within the system, 15 years ago, he still was stuck in the system,” Thompson said. “This is the reason I say the system is broken.”
Mike McCurdy and Marshall Clabeaux, co-directors of the Michael Thompson Clemency Project, said they were overjoyed for Hunt and his family. They described him as a father figure to many of his fellow prisoners.
