Clerical Error Makes State Forget To Send Man To Prison For 13 Years

According to CBS News: Most fugitives go to great lengths to avoid the police, but one convicted criminal didn’t have to try. He was allowed to stay free for more than a decade. But the long arm of the law finally did reach out.

CBS News’ Dean Reynolds met “Prisoner 1039699″ at the Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Mo.

Mike Anderson is nine months into a 13-year sentence for an armed robbery that took place in 1999. He should have gone to prison in 2002 after his conviction and unsuccessful appeals, but Missouri made a mistake. It forgot about him.

Anderson said he’s been told it’s all a clerical error.

Instead of ordering Anderson to prison, the state mistakenly thought he was already there. Anderson said he waited and waited.

Reynolds asked Anderson, “What did you think would happen as the days and weeks and months and years went by?”

Anderson said, “I had this sense in me that everything was OK, no matter what was gonna happen, that everything was gonna be OK, and, to this day, I still have that.”            

Follow Me On Twitter & Instagram: @effiongeton