After more than two decades as a law-abiding citizen, Racine man’s sole felony has finally been pardoned | Local News
A Wisconsin gubernatorial pardon, like the one pictured here, will be mailed to Tyson Willis of Racine. He says he plans to frame it and copy it and display it as much as he can in his home.
RACINE — “I thought I was going to die with that on my record,” Tyson Willis, 47, said of his felony from 1994. It had hung over him like a curse.
He recalls moving high up in an interview process for a job, everything going well. But then the background check came back and showed a drug conviction from more than 20 years ago. Then the lines of communication went dead.
“A lot of people don’t like to hire felons,” Willis said. “I’ve been passed up for a lot of jobs … because of my felony.”
Prison Legal News reported in 2011, citing a study from the economic-policy thinktank the Center for Economic and Policy Research, “Research has shown that having a history of incarceration reduces a worker’s chance of being hired by 15 to 30% and reduces the annual number of weeks worked by 6 to 11 weeks, with the effect being more pronounced among minorities and under-educated ex-prisoners.”
During Gov. Scott Walker’s eight years leading the state, Willis had applied for a pardon. For two decades, he’d lived soberly and consistently been working. But Walker never showed interest in issuing pardons; Willis received a letter from the Walker administration stating his application had been “indefinitely suspended.”
To him, that sounded about as bad as when he had been sentenced to 10 months in the Racine County Jail after a house he was dealing crack out of was raided.
The life
Willis is the first to say he was “no kingpin,” but made mistakes by staking his life on drugs and hustling on “the streets” as a 19-year-old. A Chicago native and son of a single mother, Willis came to Racine because he said he’d heard from family that it was “easy money.” Bags of cocaine that sold for $10 in Chicago were selling for $20 in Racine. Simultaneously, the Belle City was experiencing one of its highest crime rates ever.
“I thought the streets basically was the life, we had to take care of ourself,” Willis told the Governor’s Pardon Advisory Board during a virtual session on Feb. 12 regarding how he viewed his opportunities as a young man — a perspective he now sorely regrets.
The late Racine County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Barry told Willis that he was sentencing him to 10 months in the Racine County Jail because he wanted to send a message about how he didn’t want people bringing drugs from Illinois “to my city,” Willis remembered being told.
Told no, then yes
But then, “while completing my jail time … I got out with a whole new look at life,” Willis told the Pardon Advisory Board. “I was 19 at the time. I’m 47 right now. In between that time and now, I went back to school, got my certifications, have a 30-year-old daughter … my son is 20 right now (and) lives in Dallas, Texas, working for the City of Dallas.” He’s a grandfather too.
Evers
After the heartbreak of being rejected for a pardon by the Walker administration, Willis needed the encouragement of his fiancée to just to be willing to apply again after Gov. Tony Evers was sworn in in January 2019.
“It was just a drug case. It shouldn’t have been hanging around for so long,” he said.
Evers has reactivated gubernatorial pardons in Wisconsin with an apparent enthusiasm: In his first 26 months in the state’s highest office, he has pardoned 157 people for offenses ranging from the desire to hunt to just getting the label of “felon” lifted.
“From mistakes made as teenagers to desperate times as they struggled with homelessness or substance misuse, what we have seen overwhelmingly from applicants is a desire to move forward, give back, and make peace with their pasts,” Evers stated in early February as he pardoned 37 Wisconsinites.
Walker pardoned zero people in eight years. In Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, he pardoned 143 people and granted commutations to 94 people, while Barack Obama was the most active in this field than anyone in the past half-century having granted clemency to more than 1,900.
“Through a pardon, an individual is given the opportunity to make amends and give back to their community and our state,” Evers said in a statement Friday. “It continues to be extraordinary listening to the stories of so many who have paid their debt and deserve a second chance.”
On Friday, Evers announced 13 new pardons. Willis’ name was on the list.
When Willis got the email, telling him his felony was finally effectively going away, he said he started crying and couldn’t stop. When he called his fiancée to tell her the news, she thought something was wrong because he couldn’t get the words out through joyful tears.
With that felony gone, it means opportunity. It means it’s now easier to get promoted and to pursue new job opportunities, a criminally sized weight off the shoulders.
“The reason for my wanting this pardon today is for my pardon today is so I can get my lifelong job, so I don’t have to keep jumping job to job,” Willis told the Pardon Advisory Board. “I’d be in jobs two or three years, then all of a sudden something happens — ask me, I don’t know why.”
His previous job he had held for five years, but he was let go when COVID-19 hit. Quickly after that, he landed a job at A&E Incorporated in Racine, filling multiple roles on the floor, and it “is looking good so far.” He admitted it’s not his “dream job” — he wakes up around 3 a.m. daily to be at work by 5, and he’d rather be working with more people than machines — but it’s paying his bills.
He doesn’t have any more car payments; his restitution is paid off. With the felony gone, Willis said he’s more comfortable now than he’s been throughout his adult life.
“I’m just a law-abiding citizen now,” Willis said. “There’s no holding me back … I got opportunities now.”
Former Rep. Chris Collins
Collins, a Republican from New York, was sentenced to serve two months in federal prison after he admitted to helping his son and others dodge $800,000 in stock market losses when he learned that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company had failed. He was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump’s presidency.
Former Rep. Duncan Hunter
Hunter, a Southern California Republican, was sentenced in March to 11 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to stealing about $150,000 from his campaign funds to pay for a lavish Milwaukee, from vacations to outings with friends, private school tuition and his daughter’s birthday party.
George Papadopoulos
George Papadopoulos (details below)
Alexander van der Zwaan
Papadopoulos and van der Zwaan were both convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Papadopoulos was the first Trump aide to plead guilty as part of Mueller’s investigation – pleading guilty to lying to the FBI – and served a nearly two-week sentence in federal prison. He was a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign and admitted lying about a 2016 conversation with a Maltese professor who told him that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of stolen emails. He had learned from the professor, Joseph Mifsud, that Russia had thousands of stolen emails during a meeting in April 2016 in London. That revelation helped trigger the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, which later morphed into part of Mueller’s probe.
Van der Zwaan was a Dutch lawyer who was fired from a prominent international law firm and admitted he lied to federal investigators about his interactions with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, who was also charged in Mueller’s investigation. Van der Zwaan had been sentenced to 30 days in prison
He and Papadopoulos became the third and fourth defendants in the Russia probe to be granted clemency.
Former Rep. Steve Stockman
The former Texas Congressman was convicted of conspiring to bilk at least $775,000 from conservative foundations that intended the donations for charities and voter education. Prosecutors said Stockman, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until 1997, and from 2013 until 2015, misused donations from the foundations for personal and political use. He failed in his 2014 bid for the U.S. Senate. The White House said Stockman had contracted coronavirus while in federal prison and has served more than two years of his 10-year sentence. Officials said he will still be required to serve some time under supervised release and pay about $1 million in restitution.
Phil Lyman
Lyman, a Republican from Utah who currently serves as a state representative, served 10 days in prison after he led a protest of about 50 ATV riders in a canyon home to Native American cliff dwellings that officials closed to motorized traffic. It came amid a push against federal control of large swaths of land and happened in the wake of an armed confrontation that Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy had with Bureau of Land Management over grazing fees. The Trump administration in 2017 lifted a ban on motorized vehicles in parts of the canyon but left restrictions in place through other areas where Lyman led his ride.
Judith Negron (pictured), Crystal Munoz and Tynice Nichole Hall
Munoz, Negron and Hall had received executive clemency earlier this year and their cases represent the flood of requests that presidents typically receive.
The president commuted the remainder of Crystal Munoz’s sentence after granting her clemency in October. She had served 12 years of a 20-year prison sentence on a drug conspiracy charge after being convicted for her role in a marijuana smuggling ring. She contended her only role was drawing a map others allegedly used in moving the drugs from Mexico to Texas and that her lawyer failed to adequately defend her. She had been on federal supervised release before Tuesday’s commutation.
Negron had been serving 35 years at a Florida prison for health care fraud, conspiracy and money laundering when she was released in October. On Thursday, the president commuted the remainder of her term of supervised release.
Hall was convicted of drug charges and the White House said she served nearly 14 years of an 18-year sentence for allowing her apartment to be used to distribute drugs. Officials said Hall taught prison education programs to other inmates.
Their cases had been championed by criminal justice reform advocates like Alice Marie Johnson, whose life sentence Trump commuted in 2018 at the urging of reality TV star Kim Kardashian West and whose story Trump’s reelection campaign featured in a Super Bowl ad.
Philip Esformes
The former Florida health care executive was convicted on 20 criminal counts in what prosecutors described as a $1 billion Medicare fraud scheme, one of the biggest such cases in U.S. history. The wealthy Miami Beach businessman operated a network of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in South Florida and was found guilty of paying kickbacks and bribes to doctors and administrators so they would refer patients to his businesses. Esformes’ prison sentence was commuted by the president on Tuesday, but other aspects of his sentence, including supervised release and millions in restitution, remained intact. The White House said the commutation was supported by a number of former attorneys general and said Esformes is in declining health.
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean
Trump granted full pardons to Ramos and Compean, former U.S. Border Patrol agents who were convicted of shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler near El Paso, Texas in 2005. Investigators said the agents never reported the shooting and tried to cover it up. They were convicted of assault and firearm charges and a judge in 2006 sentenced Ramos to 11 years in prison and Compean to 12 years. They were freed in 2009 after then-President George W. Bush commuted their sentences.
Weldon Angelos
Angelos was 24 years old when he was sentenced in 2004 to 55 years in prison for bringing guns to marijuana deals, a sentence a federal judge was forced to impose because of mandatory minimum sentencing laws. He had no criminal record before he was convicted of selling $350 worth of marijuana to a police informant three times and prosecutors argued he was a gang member who carried a gun during two of those deals, though he was not accused of using or showing a weapon. The music producer was freed from prison in 2016. Utah Sen. Mike Lee petitioned former President Barack Obama to grant clemency to Angelos, as did the former federal judge who sentenced Angelos. Obama did not commute Angelos’ sentence but the man was instead released from prison after receiving a sentence reduction in court.
Otis Gordon
The pastor, convicted of drug possession charges, was issued a full pardon, supported by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. The White House said he became a pastor at Life Changer’s International Ministries after his conviction, mentors at-risk kids and led a prayer session at the United States Capitol after the 2015 shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Alfonso Costa
Costa is a dentist from Pittsburgh who pleaded guilty to a health care fraud charge related to false billing, served two years of probation and paid nearly $300,000 in fines and restitution. The White House said Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and former NFL football player Jerome Bettis had requested clemency for Costa and said Costa devoted much of his adult life to serving his community.
Alfred Lee Crum
The 89-year-old pleaded guilty in 1952 — when he was 19 — to helping his wife’s uncle illegally distill moonshine. He served three years of probation and paid a $250 fine. The White House said Crum, of Oklahoma, has maintained a clean record and a strong marriage for nearly 70 years, attended the same church for 60 years, raised four children, and regularly participated in charity fundraising events.
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