After being convicted of armed robbery in 2000, Cornealious Anderson awaited information on when to report to prison, but it never came. Due to a clerical error, Anderson must now serve his 13-year prison sentence over a decade after his conviction.
After failing to receive any instruction from the court to report to prison, Anderson spent the last 13 years turning his life around. Since his conviction, he’s married, learned a trade, started a business, and raised three children.
Anderson, 37, was not a fugitive in hiding. He did not try to conceal his identity. In fact, the model citizen paid taxes, renewed his driver’s license, registered a business, and paid traffic tickets. Even after being pulled over, Anderson was simply issued a ticket because there weren’t any arrest warrants under his name. But last year, Anderson was apprehended by authorities after the Missouri Department of Corrections noticed the mistake.
“They sent a SWAT team to his house,” Anderson’s attorney Patrick Megaro said Wednesday. “He was getting his 3-year-old daughter breakfast, and these men with automatic weapons bang on his door.”
“Listen, they’re going to get you some day, so just wait for the order,” Megaro continued. “As time goes by, the order never comes. What does a normal person believe? Maybe they forgot about it. It’s only human nature to hope they just let it go. He really didn’t know what to do.”
Anderson is now housed in the general population of a Charleston, South Carolina prison, fighting for his release. He argues the state missed their chance to incarcerate him.
“The real tragedy here is that one aspect of prison is the idea of rehabilitation,” said Peter Joy, director of Criminal Justice Clinic at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. “Here we have somebody who has led a perfect life for 13 years. He did everything right. So he doesn’t need rehabilitation.”
Missouri Attorney General Chris Kostner on Tuesday said the court is justified in making Anderson serve his sentence. Megaro, Anderson’s lawyer, is filing an appeal to the court to assign credit for time served.
Do you think Anderson should serve time in prison or has he been rehabilitated already?