RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Leslie Puryear thought he would be home for his son’s high school graduation last year, setting plans with family to be there and looking forward to it and other important events he typically missed while in prison.
But Puryear was one of the people incarcerated in Virginia who were denied enhanced sentence credits for good behavior after being told they would be released in the summer of 2022, a group that the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia says includes hundreds of others.
“It was devastating,” Puryear told 8News Wednesday, almost two weeks after his release. “It was devastating to not only me but to my loved ones as well because we had a lot of plans.”
Puryear was released on Nov. 9 after the Virginia Department of Corrections implemented a change to now award expanded earned sentence credits to people with convictions for attempt, solicitation or conspiracy to commit robbery or carjacking.
A look at Virginia’s earned sentence credit system
Under Virginia’s earned sentence credit program, incarcerated people can shorten their sentences with good behavior and rehabilitation programs.
A law passed in 2020 increased how many credits some can earn, with restrictions for certain violent crimes, but a last-minute budget change in 2022 kept several from earning them weeks before the law was set to take effect.
The Virginia Department of Corrections estimated last June that the change would impact more than 500 people who expected to be released last summer after earning enough credits.
Puryear said he was told he wouldn’t be released about a week before he expected to go home, telling 8News he sought mental health services while in prison after being denied the enhanced sentence credits.
The worst part for Puryear, he said, was telling his family he wasn’t coming home. This meant missing his son’s high school graduation.
“The pain and stress [I felt] over the extra year, I thought about it daily,” Puryear said Wednesday.
The case that could release “hundreds” in Virginia
The policy change by the state’s corrections department that led to Puryear’s release, shared in a court filing, was based on a ruling from the Virginia Supreme Court in July.
The state’s corrections department initially planned on awarding Steven Prease enhanced good time credits based on an opinion from former Attorney General Mark Herring that found he was eligible for additional credits for his attempted aggravated murder convictions.
But the department changed course, Prease’s petition alleged, denying him the credits after getting a new opinion from Attorney General Jason Miyares that concluded people convicted of attempting such crimes were not eligible to earn the expanded earned sentence credits.
In an opinion by Justice Cleo E. Powell, the Virginia Supreme Court concluded that “it would appear that there is no basis in the governing statutes for denying Prease expanded earned sentence credits on his attempted aggravated murder convictions.”
Puryear’s release should “be the first of many” after the change, the ACLU of Virginia said, adding that it could potentially impact “hundreds of people.”
A “beautiful” homecoming
Puryear described his release as a “beautiful” moment, saying he hugged his mother “for so long” in the parking lot when he got out. He then went to surprise his children, including waking up one of his sons and going to another’s school not long after getting out.
“It was beautiful. For me to hug them as a free man,” he told 8News. “I done almost 14 years. I’m very grateful.”
Rebecca Livengood, a partner at Relman Colfax, the law firm that filed the lawsuit on Puryear’s behalf along with the ACLU of Virginia, said they are thrilled he was able to make “it home for the holidays to his wife and children, who looked forward to his return more than a year ago only to have their hearts broken when VADOC reversed course.”
“The department’s choice to treat some offenses as ineligible for earned sentence credits was a slap in the face to his family and to the Virginia lawmakers who had already decided that he and others in his position could earn sentence credits,” Livengood added in her statement.
As for his plans for his first Thanksgiving with family in over a decade, Puryear said he expects a full house because “everyone is going” to his mother’s house.
“It hasn’t been that way in a long time. I was the missing piece and now I’m here so everybody is looking forward to tomorrow, and I just can’t wait,” he said.
