Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has reportedly been granted early release from federal prison due to the covid-19 pandemic, reported the Detroit Free Press.
Originally scheduled for release in 2037, Kilpatrick supporters said he will be freed to serve the rest of his sentence on house arrest.
He is currently at FCI Oakdale, a minimum security prison in Louisiana and reportedly in quarantine before he is released to home confinement.
The pending release comes after U.S. Attorney General William Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons to release as many inmates as possible to home confinement to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Black Enterprise reported. One of Kilpatrick’s fellow inmates, 49-year-old Patrick Jones, died of the virus.
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Kilpatrick also has an array of advocates requesting a pardon for him from President Donald Trump. They include The Ebony Foundation, NAACP, National Baptist Convention of America, billionaire Peter Karmanos, Detroit State Reps. Karen Whitsett and Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, etc.
“He said that he was being released. I’m elated for him. … An out is an out. … He’s done his time. And I think, ‘My God, when is long enough long enough,’” Whitsett told the Free Press.
Former brother -in-law Daniel Ferguson III, who was married to Kilpatrick’s sister Ayanna, also confirmed the former mayor’s early release.
“I called Ayanna and she was so hysterical and going crazy that I knew it was true,” Ferguson said.
Dubbed the “Hip-Hop Mayor” for his swag, diamond earring, nice suits and entourage, Kilpatrick was once on a celebrated upward trajectory in politics. After making history as the youngest mayor Detroit ever elected when he was 32, Kilpatrick took a steep fall from grace.
He spent seven years in prison after being convicted of 24 of the 30 counts of public corruption he was charged with in 2013. Among them were extortion, bribery, fraud and racketeering. He also pleaded guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about an extramarital affair with his former chief of staff.
To this day, Kilpatrick and some members of his family have maintained his innocence of the corruption charges, saying he was railroaded by overzealous prosecutors.
Current Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he has a “personal” connection to Kilpatrick, whom he’s known since the latter was in high school. He has offered his assistance to Kilpatrick.
“When he was teaching at Marcus Garvey and going to law school at night at DCL, he’d study in his father’s office, which was next to mine, and his twins would play on the floor in my office at the county building,” Duggan said during a press conference, according to WWJ News Radio. “He’s one of the most extraordinarily talented people I’ve ever met. I think he has a lot to contribute … I’ll be doing anything I can to help him get a fresh start.”
