By Susan Weich
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — A man from Webster Groves whose prison sentence was mistakenly delayed for 13 years will get a hearing today that could lead to his immediate release.
Attorney Patrick Megaro said in April he would make two separate arguments for Cornealious “Mike” Anderson’s freedom at a hearing in Mississippi County on May 5.
“I am hoping that I will get my client released,” Megaro said. “Nothing would make me and his family happier.”
In addition, Megaro has filed a clemency request with Gov. Jay Nixon, who could free Anderson.
The court hearing will be argued in front of Associate Circuit Judge Terry Lynn Brown and is being held in the county were Anderson is jailed.
Anderson, 37, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for an armed robbery in St. Charles County in 2000 but was out on bail while his case was appealed.
When the appeal failed, Anderson was never ordered to jail.
He became a carpenter, got married, had four children and started his own construction business.
Last summer, just about the time Anderson would have finished serving his sentence, someone at the Department of Corrections noticed the error.
Marshals found Anderson in Webster Groves, at the address listed on his drivers license, and sent him to prison to serve the 13 years.
Megaro is asking in one filing that Anderson be given credit for the time he was waiting for an order to return to court; this would satisfy his sentence. In another, he is taking an approach suggested in a filing by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster. It brings action against the director of the Department of Corrections — that could lead to Anderson’s release too.
Koster’s office released a statement Thursday reiterating that his goal was to balance “the seriousness of Mr. Anderson’s crime with the clerical error made by the criminal justice system, alongside Mr. Anderson’s conduct since his commission of the crime.”
Megaro maintains that making Anderson serve his sentence 13 years after the fact is a violation of Anderson’s rights and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Also, he said the victim of the crime, a Burger King worker who was held up by Anderson and another man, doesn’t want Anderson to serve his sentence.