For Terrance Williams, the chance to be pardoned for what he says was “horsing around” with a friend at 15 years old means he can join a security business his friend started years ago.
Williams was found delinquent of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon in 1984. He said his friend hit him “with something” and his reaction was just to “hit him with something.”
“It’s gonna make a big change,” he said of the pardon at the State House Thursday afternoon. “Years ago, me and a friend of mine, we were supposed to start a business together, a security business. And because of this (conviction), it denied me starting it with him. But he proceeded on with it.”
Gov. Maura Healey recommended pardoning Williams alongside six other people who were convicted of everything from low-level drug offenses to assault and battery on a police officer. It marks the first time in three decades a governor has done so during their first year in elected office.
The group of seven were convicted at young ages, and in Healey’s view, have worked to pay back their communities and take advantage of a second chance at life. They have dealt with the consequences of their past crimes for “far beyond their legal sentences,” Healey said at the State House.
“They accepted their responsibility for their mistakes and paid their debts to society,” Healey told a crowded room of advocates and state officials. “They’ve spent decades abiding by our laws supporting their families, volunteering in their communities, and in many cases, living exemplary lives of service to others. They want to continue this service, but they face barriers and uncertainties because of their long-ago convictions.”
The pardons need the approval of the Governor’s Council, which largely rubber-stamped past proposals from former Gov. Charlie Baker. All of the seven up for pardons under the Healey administration were also recommended during Baker’s tenure but did not receive the former Republican’s approval.
By pardoning seven people so early in her tenure, Healey has done what Baker left until his last year in office, when the Governor’s Council approved 15 of his recommendations. Healey said she plans to recommend pardons “whenever justice requires it.”
Those recommended for pardons alongside Williams are Eden Amet, Xavier Delvalle, Glen King, John Latter, Deborah Pickard, and Gerald Waloewandja.
King, who was born in Jamaica but grew up in Boston, said “peer pressure was everywhere” when he returned from serving in the Army in the 1980s. At 30 years old, he was convicted of possession with intent to distribute a Class B controlled substance and possession of a Class D substance.
“It was rampant. There’s nothing you could do about it, but join whatever there was to make life happen,” he said at the State House. “So that’s what I did. Unfortunately, that was the wrong decision. I regret that up until this day.”
Amet was convicted in 1995 of three counts of distribution of a Class B substance and three counts of distribution of a controlled substance in a school zone, according to the governor’s office. He was sentenced to one day in prison for the drug-distribution convictions and two years on the school zone violations.
“He’s held steady employment over the years and most recently started his own real estate investment firm despite battling prostate cancer,” the Healey administration said in a statement.
Delvalle was convicted in 2006 of breaking and entering at night with intent to commit a felony, possession of burglarious tools, and two counts of larceny, Healey said in a statement. He was 19 at the time.
Latter was also 19 years old when he was convicted of arson, according to the Healey administration. Healey said he has since relocated to Florida where he tried to obtain a nursing license, but was denied because of his record.
Pickard was “convicted of several crimes” while she was in her twenties including assault and battery upon a police officer.
“She had grown up in a violent household where she witnessed and was the victim of physical abuse,” Healey said in a statement. “She suffered from substance use disorder from an early age and turned to substances to cope with mental health challenges, including suicide ideation.”
And Waloewandja was convicted of possession with intent to distribute a Class A controlled substance, according to the Healey administration.
“This is his only criminal offense and was committed at a time when he was suffering from substance use disorder,” the administration said. “He is now married with two children and lives in Maine, works and volunteers in the community, and is an active member of his church.
And 39 years after his conviction, Williams said people need to look at those seeking an opportunity “just to come back to society.”
“I never gave up,” he said. “I tell my kids, I tell my wife never, never give up. The only time you give up is when God calls you home.”