Clemency: The Capacity – and the Chance – to Make Good Choices

In the late 1990s, Evans Ray, Jr., put his second drug conviction and incarceration behind him, determined to live an honorable and law-abiding life. He got sober, married, had children, and opened his own barber shop. Evans was happy and busy for ten years before an old prison friend reached out, desperately in need and on the verge of collapse. Evans warily helped him with the sale of some crack cocaine. What he didn’t know was that the deal had been set up as a sting operation. Evans was convicted and sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of life for his “third strike.”

Twelve years later, with the help of a tenacious, caring attorney and the retired judge who had reluctantly sentenced him, Evans was granted clemency by President Obama in 2016. A free man, Evans set to work making his way back into society and connecting with his family, especially his children. With the support of his large family, he found work that paid some bills but also opportunities to speak wherever there were people to listen, joining forces with his former lawyer and sentencing judge to advocate reform.

When Evans speaks to legislators about the injustice of mandatory minimum sentencing laws, he is trying to speak for those on the inside whose voices aren’t heard.

“Just knowing that you have someone out here — if you keep the faith and keep pushing, something good is gonna happen,” Evans says, referring to the men and women still waiting for mercy. “People make mistakes. I want a chance to help give them the right opportunity. Second chances allow you to be all you can be.”

Evans admits that reentry wasn’t easy because the system is generally unfriendly to those leaving prison. But he came to realize that he had options, that there were people willing to take a chance on him. It’s the reason he’s so grateful to Delano Hunter, the director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, who hired Evans as a customer service representative. The union job comes with health insurance and other benefits, not the least of which is the responsibility Evans now feels and the faith that’s been put into him.

Now remarried, Evans and his wife have bought their first home. He continues to reconnect with his children, help take care of his parents, and fight for others to have the life he only hoped he would someday lead.

“Remember that you have the capacity to make good choices,” President Obama concluded in his clemency letter to Evans. “You will also influence, through your example, the possibility that others in your circumstances get their own second chance in the future.”

Will you help us shine a light on more people who were granted clemency like Evans and are making their communities safer and their families stronger? Learn more about our work for second chances.

Watch Evans talk about the day he received the joyful news that his clemency had been granted: