MANHATTAN (KSNT) – A local man is back home after spending the past two and a half years in prison.
Deshaun Durham was twenty years old when he was arrested for possession of more than two pounds of marijuana. He originally got 92 months; an unusually extreme punishment for a first-time offender.
He was released earlier this month after Governor Laura Kelly commuted the remainder of his sentence. December 25 will be the first Christmas home with his family since being locked up.
“What a good feeling,” Durham said, “to be able to really enjoy what the holidays bring. Being with my family and just celebrating Christmas again and all that stuff, you know, it’s a pretty intense feeling.
Durham was incarcerated at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. He said when all else failed, he appealed to the governor.
“They told me I could apply for clemency,” he said, “but thousands of people within the prison system put that in so they said, ‘Oh, you probably won’t get it.’ So one day I just sat in my cell and wrote a three-page letter to the governor.”
After years of waiting he got an answer.
“I think it worked out in the end,” he said. “They told me I had an interview with the governor’s chief attorney… when I talked to other people there, they said, ‘Oh, that never happens.’ So you know, something good must be coming. ”
Speaking to 27 News, Governor Kelly said she generally does not discuss details of pardons or commutations. When asked about Durham’s case, Kelly stood by her history of exercising her power to grant clemency.
“We shouldn’t be incarcerating people who don’t need to be incarcerated,” Kelly said, “or who are incarcerated much longer than they would have been in, say, another case.”
Clemency isn’t the only gift Durham received for Christmas. One of the top tasks after his release was seeing the Kansas City Chiefs play at Arrowhead Stadium. Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy caught wind and made it happen.
“It was definitely quite an experience,” Durham said. “I went from watching all the Chiefs games on my 13-inch TV that we had in prison to actually being there and being so close to the field.”
The Manhattan resident didn’t get the chance to meet Worthy, but hopes to say “thank you” in person one day.
“It was a very nice gesture from Xavier Worthy to set me up like that,” he said. “I really hope he is willing to meet me in the future.”
Durham works at a local Chinese restaurant while he figures out what’s next. He said it is still surreal to be free.
It felt a bit like a dream. I had to look at the paper a few times, the redemption paper, to make sure it wasn’t a scam email or something, to make sure it was real… it was hard not to cry a little, You know, I still had about four and a half years left. It’s, you know, prison is so hard there.
Deshaun Durham when he heard his sentence was commuted
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