1 of 3 Bobby standing next to a mall in St.Louis last month — Photo: PERSONAL ARCHIVE Bobby standing next to a mall in St.Louis last month — Photo: PERSONAL ARCHIVE
When the American Bobby Bostic was released from prison in November, almost three decades after being sentenced to 241 years, he found many things strange on the outside.
From wireless headphones (“Why are these guys talking to themselves?”) to people talking to their speakers (“What is Alexa?”), the world has changed a lot since December 1995.
But the strangest thing were the people.
“How friendly they are compared to prison,” says the 44yearold. “You walk into a grocery store and they say, ‘Sir, can I help you?’ In prison one finds nothing but scowling faces…”
He’s still getting used to, “Hey, how are you?” listen. instead of “Don’t get that close to me”.
“There are only good things here. People smile. Children wave at you. It’s like this is life. That is normal. This is how things should be.”
Logically, then, it is difficult to adjust after 27 years of institutional and sustained aggression.
“Deep down, we’ve always looked for that humanity, that human connection. This is life. That’s beauty. That is the joy of being human.”
‘New chapter’
After sleeping nearly 10,000 nights in a cell across the United States, November 8, 2022 was the last Bobby spent in prison. But he was too busy dreaming of freedom to sleep.
Instead, he spent the long, dark night packing. He left his belongings to other inmates, but kept one thing: his typewriter.
At sunrise, when the cell was full, he looked at the board that showed which prisoners were changing cells. Next to his name was a word: liberated.
“It didn’t feel real until I saw the words,” he says.
When the match came true, Bobby changed into regular clothes to go home. After wearing the gray prison uniform for 27 years, he chose a blue suit.
“It represents the new chapter of my life,” he says. “The new life.”
Twentyfive years earlier, Judge Evelyn Baker told Bobby that he would “die in prison.”
But at 7:30 a.m. on a November morning, Bobby was a free man, dressed in his suit and with a smile as bright as the Missouri sun.
As soon as he left, a woman in a black hat came up to hug him. It was Judge Evelyn Baker.
court war
The journey, which ended with a hug outside of prison, began in December 1995 on a drugfueled day in St. Louis, Missouri.
After drinking gin, smoking pot and consuming PCP (phencyclidine), then 16yearold Bobby and his friend Donald Hutson went on a series of armed robberies.
They stole from a group that was giving out Christmas presents to those in need. They fired their gun (luckily they didn’t hurt anyone). They stole a woman’s car and threatened her with a gun.
After his arrest, the court offered Bobby a deal if he pleaded guilty, he would receive a 30year sentence with the possibility of parole. He refused. And of course he was found guilty. Baker sentenced him to multiple consecutive terms totaling 241 years for his 17 crimes.
Hutson pleaded guilty and got 30 years.
When the BBC first interviewed Bobby in 2018, he saw glimmers of hope. In 2010, the US Supreme Court ruled that minors should not receive life sentences without parole for crimes other than murder.
In 2016 it was confirmed that the decision would also apply to previous cases such as Bobby’s.
But the state of Missouri was unwilling to release Bobby, arguing that instead of a life sentence, he received multiple sentences for different crimes committed simultaneously.
The local judiciary even stated that he would have a chance of parole at “very old age”.
In April 2018, a month after the BBC interview, the US Supreme Court dismissed Bobby’s appeals without explaining why.
“Most people would give up at that point,” says Bobby. “Once they tell you no, there’s nothing left.”
But Bobby didn’t give up. He went back to reading his selfhelp books—American author Napoleon Hill is one of his favorites—and used his typewriter. The hope stayed alive, letter for letter.
2 of 3 Bobby in 2017 still in jail pending litigation — Photo: DISCLOSURE Bobby in 2017 still arrested pending litigation — Photo: DISCLOSURE
The Penitent Judge
It was an amendment to a new Missouri law that gave parole to prisoners who had served long sentences as children, giving Bobby another chance.
However, as of May 14, 2021 the last day before the Missouri legislative recess the proposal still hadn’t passed.
“I didn’t have a lot of faith,” says Bobby. “Usually if it doesn’t come by January or February, there’s no chance of getting there.”
And then Bobby got a message from a pen pal.
“The prison allowed us to receive emails,” says Bostic. “Someone emailed me an article [jornal] Missouri Independent, who said that the law actually passed…it was a miracle. I was like, ‘Man, is this really going to happen? Will the governor sign it?'”
The governor, Mike Parson, signed the law into law. Thanks to Bobby’s Law, he and hundreds of others were eligible for parole. Bobby’s hearing is scheduled for November 2021.
“But I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “A parole hearing is no guarantee of getting out of prison.”
At hearings, prisoners are allowed to elect an official representative to assist them. Bobby knew who to go to the judge who said he was going to die in prison.
Baker — who became Missouri’s first black judge in 1983 — began questioning Bobby’s judgment about 2010, two years after his retirement, when he read about the difference between teen and adult brains. In her 25year career, it was the only decision she regretted.
In February 2018, she wrote an article for The Washington Post calling Bobby’s verdict “stupid and unfair.” A month later she spoke to the BBC and reiterated the message.
But what did she say at the parole hearing?
“Bobby was a 16yearold who I treated like a full adult, which was wrong,” she now tells the BBC. “I became close to Bobby and his sister. I’ve seen him grow from a juvenile delinquent into a very caring adult. He has grown up.”
Like the judge, one of Bobby’s victims from the 1995 episode also came in his favor (the BBC had already contacted some of Bobby and Hutson’s victims, but none wanted to speak publicly). With her help, the parole hearing was successful.
“If I could have done somersaults, I would have,” Baker said.
A year after her parole hearing, the person holding her on that sunny November morning was a free man.
“It was like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, all the holidays rolled into one,” she says. “I started crying. Bobby was free.”
3 of 3 Judge Evelyn Baker meets Bobby in prison 2020 — Photo: ACLU Judge Evelyn Baker meets Bobby in prison 2020 — Photo: ACLU
After meeting Baker, friends, family and supporters of his cause, Bobby went out to eat his first meal outside of prison since 1995. Vegan for 24 years, he chose a taco. But something unexpected happened.
“I got in the car and threw up all the food,” he says. “I haven’t been in a car in 27 years. There’s this thing called motion sickness.”
After recovering, he went to his sister’s house on the south side of St. Louis, the city where he grew up. During the day, he says, more than 400 people came to greet him.
“They formed a line around the block,” he says. “When I saw it, I shook hands with that person, that cousin, that aunt, that uncle, that friend … I stayed up until two in the morning.”
However, the outside world is not an endless party. There were, you might say, episodes of seasickness.
Bobby and his sister run the “Dear Mama” charity, which donates groceries, toys, and other support to lowincome families in St. Louis (the charity is named for their late mother, Diane, who, according to Bobby, “has given to a lot of people, although we didn’t have much”).
He runs a writing workshop every Thursday at the city’s juvenile detention center and wants to do more. But like charity, it’s volunteer work.
He makes money selling books he has seven for sale on Amazon, all typed on his prison typewriter and occasionally giving lectures. He uses it to rent a oneroom apartment and pay the bills.
“I can barely make ends meet with what I’m doing now,” he admits.
He is hoping for a fulltime position in church ministry or youth evangelism and is looking for opportunities. But even if money is tight, that doesn’t lessen your admiration or gratitude for the outside world.
“I’m still struggling with some things,” he says. “But apart from that, life is nice here, every day. I go through the fridge and see the variety of choices. A bath in the tub not for 27 years! I don’t take anything for granted.”
Bobby got a second chance in life and is thankful for it. But his partner on that day in December 1995 was not.
Donald Hutson who accepted the deal and got 30 years in prison died in prison in September 2018. A toxicology report indicated an overdose. He would be eligible for parole 9 months later.