Years After Their Death Sentences Were Commuted, Former Death-Row Prisoners in Illinois, Ohio Are Released

Two for­mer death-row pris­on­ers whose sen­tences were com­mut­ed by gov­er­nors in Illinois and Ohio more than a decade ago have been released from custody.

Renaldo Hudson (pic­tured) was one of 167 pris­on­ers whose death sen­tences were com­mut­ed to life with­out parole by Governor George Ryan in January 2003. He was released from Danville Correctional Center on September 2, 2020, after Governor J.B. Pritzker grant­ed him a sec­ond com­mu­ta­tion, reduc­ing his sen­tence to time served. 

Jeffrey Hill was released on parole on September 1, 2020, after a rul­ing by the Ohio parole board grant­i­ng him ear­ly release. Governor Ted Strickland had com­mut­ed Hill’s death sen­tence to 25 years to life on February 12, 2009, fol­low­ing the Ohio Parole Board’s unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion that he not be put to death. 

Both men had been con­sid­ered mod­el pris­on­ers since their release from death row.

Renaldo Hudson’s Case

Hudson had been impris­oned 37 years since his arrest for a 1983 mur­der he com­mit­ted while high on drugs. He was 19 years old at the time. His first tri­al in 1985 end­ed in a mis­tri­al when the jury could not reach a unan­i­mous ver­dict. At his sec­ond tri­al in 1990, he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. 

While in prison, Hudson taught him­self to read and write and became inter­est­ed in reli­gion, con­vert­ing to Islam and lat­er to Christianity. He earned a high school diplo­ma, an associate’s degree, and a bachelor’s degree. He also grad­u­at­ed from a counselor’s pro­gram and became a cer­ti­fied lit­er­a­cy tutor. In 2003, Hudson cre­at­ed an essay con­test that asked pris­on­ers ​“who am I and what can I do bet­ter?” A col­lec­tion of these essays was lat­er pub­lished as a nov­el. In 2018, he cre­at­ed a peer men­tor­ship pro­gram that has near­ly 500 participants.

Hudson has long expressed remorse for his actions. He told the Chicago Tribune, ​“I will not attempt to make excus­es. It was a hor­ri­ble, hor­ri­ble thing. … That’s a dif­fi­cult thing to real­ize that you’re the per­son com­plete­ly respon­si­ble for the death of some­one and then such a horrible death.” 

Hudson’s sec­ond clemen­cy, which was part of a series of com­mu­ta­tions Governor Pritzker grant­ed in response to the coro­n­avirus, was not opposed by Cook County District Attorney Kim Foxx. Nonetheless, Hudson did not expect it to hap­pen. After his release, he told the Tribune:

“When my trans­for­ma­tion start­ed, you have to under­stand, I was prepar­ing to die, I wasn’t prepar­ing for this moment … for a chance to be set free. And, so, my trans­for­ma­tion was for me. My trans­for­ma­tion was that I didn’t want to die being good for noth­ing. I didn’t want to die know­ing that no one cared.”

Jeffrey Hill’s Case 

Hill was sen­tenced to death in Hamilton County, Ohio, for killing his moth­er in 1991 while in a drug-induced rage. Governor Strickland com­mut­ed his sen­tence less than a month before Hill was sched­uled to be executed. 

The Cleveland Plain Dealer report­ed at the time that ​“Ohio prison offi­cials say it’s the first time an inmate fac­ing death for killing a fam­i­ly mem­ber has unan­i­mous back­ing from his fam­i­ly as he fights exe­cu­tion.” The par­dons board unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy, advis­ing the gov­er­nor that it ​“does not con­sid­er this offense and offend­er the ​‘worst of the worse’ as in oth­er death penal­ty cas­es.” The clemen­cy report urged Strickland to hon­or the ​“com­pelling and unan­i­mous opin­ion of vic­tim Emma Hill’s fam­i­ly who favor clemen­cy in this case. … They have suf­fered tremen­dous loss, and exe­cu­tion would add fur­ther to their suffering.” 

The board rec­om­mend­ed reduc­ing Hill’s sen­tence to life with parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty after 25 years. It was the first time it had rec­om­mend­ed that any death-row prisoner’s sen­tence be com­mut­ed to a sen­tence less than life with­out parole. Gov. Strickland accept­ed the rec­om­men­da­tion, cit­ing ​“the views of the victim’s fam­i­ly, the lack of ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion by coun­sel at Mr. Hill’s sen­tenc­ing, the remorse demon­strat­ed by Mr. Hill regard­ing his actions, the lack of pro­por­tion­al­i­ty of the sen­tence of death in this case when com­pared with sim­i­lar mur­der cas­es, and the expressed views of two jus­tices of the Ohio Supreme Court which reviewed this case on appeal.”

Following a hear­ing in June 2020, after 27 years in prison, the parole board grant­ed Hill’s appli­ca­tion for parole, clear­ing the way for his release on September 1.