By C1 Staff
LEE COUNTY, Iowa — An inmate incarcerated for killing his neighbor over a gambling debt in 1974 has been granted parole.
According to the DesMoines Register, Rasberry Williams, 68, has been a model inmate since he was convicted of first-degree murder.
In 1979, he helped end a standoff at the Iowa State Penitentiary where an inmate took two corrections officers hostage at knifepoint.
His life sentence was commuted last year, making him eligible for parole. He hoped to be granted a parole that would allow him to move to Chicago to be with family, but he will instead be placed in an assisted living facility.
“After 37 years of incarceration, just to have him released anywhere, that’s what we wanted,” Williams’ daughter, Charletta Sudduth, said.