Alabama prison lifer gets pardon after turnaround

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Mack Kirby was a habitual offender serving life in prison without parole until the Alabama Supreme Court issued a landmark decision that gave him a second chance. Now he has changed his life so much that the state parole board awarded him a pardon Wednesday.

"He was a drain on Alabama's resources. Now he's a contributing member of society," his attorney, Johnny Amari, told the board.

"Everybody who has touched this case agrees with you," parole board member Robert Longshore said before the board's unanimous decision.

Kirby, 67, stood before the parole board Wednesday in a sports shirt and casual slacks, a far cry from the prison whites that were his uniform for many years.

A state Supreme Court decision helped him get out of prison in late 2004. Now, he lives on a small farm in Pisgah, operates a one-truck trucking business, and runs a small trailer park.

"I try to be a good neighbor. I keep a clean place and I keep the yard mowed," Kirby said.

His life wasn't always so orderly.

He had two moonshine offenses and an arson conviction for burning a tool shed when he was found guilty of trafficking in marijuana in 1990. As a four-time loser convicted of a major drug felony, Alabama's habitual offender law required the judge to sentence him to life in prison without parole.

In 2000, when state prisons were filled beyond capacity, the Legislature changed the habitual offender law to give judges the option of sentencing nonviolent habitual offenders to prison with the possibility of parole. The Legislature decided a year later to make the change retroactive, which would allow judges to reconsider their previous sentences of life without parole.

Kirby, who had never injured anyone with his crimes, applied for a change in his sentence. The state attorney general fought applying the law retroactively. Kirby lost at the trial court and appeals court levels, but the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in his favor in a precedent-setting decision in 2004. That decision made Kirby the first to have his sentenced reviewed and allowed judges to reconsider an estimated 300 sentences of other inmates.

Kirby's judge quickly changed his sentence to make him eligible for parole, and the parole board granted him a parole in late 2004. Kirby returned home to re-establish his life with the help of his siblings.

Meanwhile, his name was etched in state legal records. A request to change a sentence of life without parole is now known as a "Kirby motion," Amari said.

Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, represented Kirby in his legal appeals and cites Kirby's case as more than a personal success story.

"It's a success story for Alabama because we would have been spending $15,000 to $20,000 a year to keep him incarcerated," Stevenson said.

Kirby's pardon ends his parole supervision and allows him to register to vote like other Alabamians. For Kirby, that's one of the most exciting things about his second chance at life.

"I live right across the street from the community center where they vote, and I've always wanted to vote," he said.