I know ya'll prolly remember that old 90's movie called Life with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. They starred as two young guys who get hemmed up for a crime they kinda didn't commit, and spend years in prison trying unsuccessfully to escape. They finally break out, but by then they're like 80 years old, so the warden just lets em' escape.
Well, this story our of Maryland is sorta the same, just in reverse. I don't usually like cut and pasting this much of an article, but I think it's needed for context. Peep this first.
Eighty-one-year-old Willie Parker has had trouble getting around since suffering a stroke, and his right arm curls inward as correctional officers help him move about the Sampson County jail.So, this dude has essentially been on the run for two generations, and gets himself busted on some ole' BS because he got a little sloppy with old age. The question is should he be put back in jail, or with his poor health should the state of Maryland consider his 4+ decades on the run as time served?
But he's made the most of his time there since his arrest last week, 43 years after walking away from a prison work detail in Maryland. The hobbled old man was finally tracked down as part of Maryland's effort to clear more than 80 outstanding warrants, and his arrest has many wondering if it was worth the effort.
Parker served about 10 years of a 40-year sentence for robbery with a deadly weapon, decided that was enough and left the Eastern Correctional Camp in Maryland.
He was arrested Feb. 20 in Clinton, a farming community south of Raleigh, where he was receiving part-time home health care services. Maryland authorities traced him there after discovering during a review of old cases that he had a North Carolina driver's license, Maryland corrections officials said.
He had been arrested several times under different identities in places around the country, but he had lived a quiet life recently. Parker, who said he thought no one was looking for him anymore, was in bed when a deputy U.S. marshal leading two others arrived to arrest him.
Parker, who also served time in Washington state, said he was told during that sentence that Maryland had dropped its detainer on him, and he went back to using his real name once he was released.
I could see it both ways, honestly. On one hand, this dude did commit a gun crime, robbery with a deadly weapon. That's no laughing matter, and I'm sure the folks he stuck up didn't feel very safe all those years he was on the lam. Parker did not complete his sentence (only 10 of 40), and actually got himself into more trouble while he was out, all the way on the other side of the country.
On the other hand, c'mon, this dude is 81 years old and in very poor health. What good does it do to haul him back to prison when he's way too advanced in age to pose a real threat to anything other than a bedpan? Let the old man suffer the final few years of his life sans captivity.
Question: Should Willie Parker have to do the time or should they let the old man go?
Bonus Video: The famous "Cornbread" scene from Life.
Md. Defends Man's Arrest for 1965 Escape [AP]
