Ronnie Peoples is free! Sentenced to life without parole for offenses with no physical injury, Mr. Peoples was respected and beloved at St. Clair prison. But it took a cancer diagnosis for him to be released.

Ronnie Peoples on his release day from St. Clair Correctional Facility. Joining him are Researcher Eddie Burkhalter, Executive Director Carla Crowder, St. Clair trade school instructor Bradley Black, Mr. Peoples, Staff Attorney Scott Fuqua and trade school instructor Chad Spurlin.

By Eddie Burkhalter, Appleseed Research

Ronnie Peoples stood alongside Bradley Black in St. Clair Correctional Facility and the two men hugged before Mr. Peoples walked outside as a free man for the first time in 33 years. 

Mr. Black, a welding instructor at the prison’s trade school, worked for decades alongside Mr. Peoples, who kept track of the tools for the instructor, a critical job in a prison. “When you get outside, smell the air,” Mr. Black told Mr. Peoples. “It smells different.” 

Mr. Peoples with his attorney Scott Fuqua.

Mr. Peoples, 69, took a couple steps outside the prison’s door and standing in the misty December morning, took a deep breath. “I smell it. Smells different,” he said as Appleseed staff walked him outside to start his life anew. 

Mr. Peoples has served more than three decades of a life without the possibility of parole sentence under the state’s Habitual Felony Offender Act (HFOA). He is among the growing number of very sick and older incarcerated people in Alabama. He was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in April 2023. The disease has spread to a lung and to a rib, and with Appleseed attorney Scott Fuqua’s help, Mr. Peoples applied for and was granted a medical furlough. 

“Last night was probably the longest night of my whole life,” Mr. Peoples told Appleseed’s Executive Director, Carla Crowder, just outside the prison. He didn’t sleep much, and instead thought about those who were coming to get him the next morning, about seeing family for Christmas whom he hasn’t seen in decades, including a 10-year-old grandson he’s never met. He thought about family most of all. 

Mr. Peoples received his life without the possibility of parole sentence after a 1991 robbery of a beverage company conviction in Tuscaloosa County. No one was injured. His sentence was enhanced under the HFOA because of prior robbery convictions more than four decades ago in the 1970s, including in Ohio. Life without parole was the only available sentence at the time, but because of changes to Alabama sentencing laws, Mr. Peoples would have been eligible for a much shorter sentence if current laws applied to his case. Last year, Appleseed profiled his situation in a series of reports about the Cruel and Unusual conditions in Alabama’s prisons.

Mr. Peoples with his trade instructors Bradley Black and Chad Spurlin.

“The whole block started clapping,” Mr. Peoples said of walking through the prison before his release. 

His road to freedom was long. 

In 2005, Mr . Peoples asked the court to reconsider his sentence, and Mr. Black, in a letter to the judge 18 years ago wrote: “He is an excellent worker and a person whom I can count on and trust. .. I normally do not write letters for the inmates. When Ronnie asked me to write this letter for him, I felt it was the least I could do for someone who has helped me so much and has never asked for anything in return.”

While Mr. Peoples application was approved by ADOC Commissioner John Hamm, medical furloughs aren’t easy to get in Alabama. Of the 30 medical furlough applications received in 2023, ADOC approved 10, according to the department’s report. However, three applicants died during the review process. Approvals were similar in other recent years: 10 for medical furlough in 2021 and nine in 2022. 

Mr. Peoples poses for pics with Bradley Black.

Treatment for his cancer while incarcerated was lacking, Mr Peoples explained, and getting timely medical information on his condition was difficult. He’d often go many weeks without a checkup, and planned lab work would be missed. He had his last lab work done about a week before release, and said he’s hopeful he’ll receive better treatment in the free world. 

Appleseed’s reentry team is assisting with all of the wraparound services he will need, including assisting with access to Social Security and Medicare.

“There’s going to be a whole lot of tears shed,” Mr. Peoples said of when he’d see his sister and other family members later that day. “My sister. She can’t stop crying, every time I call her…I just want to enjoy the Christmas spirit with my family.”