Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!

As we remember the passing of my friend Maurice Carter this week, I use this blog site to reprint a column written by former Grand Rapids Religion Editor Charley Honey, who visited Maurice at a nursing home.

August 21, 2004

Grand Rapids Press

After 28 years, 'It's so great to be free'

By Charley Honey, Religion Editor 

I have had the privilege of meeting a man convicted of trying to kill someone.

His name is Maurice Carter. He has gentle eyes, a warm hug and a soft smile that glows with gratitude.

In this thin, ailing man, I saw a presence of grace that I have not witnessed in a very long time.

"I know this God is for real," Carter said quietly, sitting in the lobby of an area nursing home. "He's just answered my prayers. That's what keeps me going."

It had been almost a month since Maurice Carter walked out of prison after 28 years behind bars. He went in at age 32, convicted in 1976 of assault with the intent to murder a Benton Harbor police officer. He came out at age 60 and suffering from hepatitis C, his life sentence commuted by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Granholm and the state Parole Board released Carter due to his declining health. He may need a liver transplant to survive.

That did not clear Carter's name from a crime he and many supporters say he did not commit. Based on the information I have seen, I believe they're almost certainly right.

But it wasn't the details of his case that drew me to Carter. It was his lack of bitterness after losing the prime of his life to prison. In him, I saw the power of faith to transform and transcend.

"God put me in there for a reason," Carter said of his imprisonment. "There was a reason I had to wait so long. I accept it now."

We were with Pat Shellenbarger, a Press reporter whose investigative articles drew attention to Carter's plight, and Ed Golder, a Press editorial writer who advocated his release.

Carter was staying in an assisted-living facility while being treated for a staph infection and awaiting evaluation for a possible liver transplant. As other patients were wheeled down the hall, Carter expressed a Rip Van Winkle-like wonder at how much had changed since he went behind bars.

"Things are so fast," he marveled. "They didn't have VCRs when I was out. The Internet, cell phones ..."

He calls his mother in Gary, Ind., regularly now but is restricted from visiting her for six months. For now, he finds comfort in the family of Doug Tjapkes of Spring Lake, who worked long and hard for his release.

Carter came to Tjapkes' congregation, Ferrysburg Community Church, after his release to express gratitude for church members' support and letters on his behalf. He and Tjapkes embraced to a standing ovation, and Carter nodded to a favorite hymn, "His Eye is on the Sparrow."

He figures God's eye was on him in prison. But it took Tjapkes to convince him of that.

After his conviction, he said, "I was really frustrated and bitter and angry. Didn't trust anybody. Sort of lost my faith."

A prison counselor began to change that, turning Carter back toward his better self and the Lord he had worshipped as a child. But it was when Tjapkes began visiting about 10 years ago that he really turned around.

"He'd say, 'Maurice, it's in God's hands.' I said, 'Give me a couple (Bible) verses and I'll read 'em.'"

Through prayer and a Bible study group, his faith revived. "It seemed like every time I asked God to help me, he came through." That's when he realized God had better things in mind than the life he'd been living, even before prison.

"I know what he put me on this earth for now. He wants me to help others. That's what life is all about — being around good people and doing God's work."

He plans to do so through the group Innocent!, which Tjapkes established, by helping wrongly convicted inmates.

But until his health improves, Carter is just drinking in the beauty of being alive. He rhapsodized about eating steak and salmon from Doug and Marcia Tjapkes' grill, and about how he felt when he got out of prison.

"It was just a great day," he said, hands open. "I felt the breeze; I saw the sun. It's so great to be free."

We walked out back of the nursing home, where fish jumped in the Grand River and a light breeze blew through soft sunshine. Standing next to Maurice Carter, I was grateful to be alive — and free.