PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The first of December marked one year of freedom for Ronald Davis — freedom he thought he wouldn’t live to see.
“I want my story to be a story of redemption,” he told me this week with determination in his eyes. “Ms. Larché, I want to be done with prison.”
Watch previous coverage: Portsmouth man serving 80 years for robbery he committed in high school set free
Davis, his mother, and I sat down in their front yard in Portsmouth this week — the same spot where I saw him embrace his family for the first time outside of prison walls in nearly 30 years.
“I don't have far-fetched dreams,” said Davis. “I don’t want [millions of] dollars. I just want to be happy. I just want to come home, make my mama proud, make a good living, and be happy.”
As I’ve reported, Davis was sentenced to 80 years in prison when he was an 18-year-old high school student in the late 1990s for a string of robberies across Hampton Roads. No one was injured or killed in the robberies.
More Davis coverage: Portsmouth man is 'on the right path' after lifelong robbery sentence is amended
He would have been 98 years old by the time his original sentence was completed.
“I can only imagine how [the victims] felt,” said Davis, reflecting on the emotional strife they may have experienced in the absence of any physical injuries.
“I deserved to be punished. I deserved to be punished for my actions," he said. "But I didn’t deserve to die in prison.”
When I began investigating the length of Davis’ sentence in 2020, I tracked down the attorney who prosecuted Davis for his crimes in Newport News. Matt Danielson told me “the facts really don`t justify the amount of time that he got.”
When I interviewed Danielson, he had already written a letter of support for Davis’ early release to Virginia's then-Gov. Ralph Northam. Outcry from state leaders and community members calling Davis’ sentence excessive also preceded Northam’s decision to pardon Davis. Before leaving office in 2022, Northam set Davis’ release date for Dec. 1, 2023 — ending his time served at 26 years.
Previous Davis coverage: Portsmouth man says his decades-long sentence for robbery highlights excessive sentencing disparities
“I never lost faith. I never lost it,” Davis told me this week. “Everything that I laid back in that [prison] bunk at night and dreamed about, I'm living it.”
In the year since his release, Davis told me he has earned his commercial driver’s license and is working on local projects as a truck driver. He’s also taking classes at Tidewater Community College in the hopes of earning a bachelor’s degree.
He smiles ear-to-ear when sharing his progress with me.
Watch previous coverage: Portsmouth man serving 80 years for robbery seeks help
I asked him, “Do you see making the most of the second chance as an apology to the people that you robbed?”
“Most definitely," he responded. "I owe them. I wanted to come out here and be successful and show them... that I'm not that same person I was, 27, almost 30 years ago.”
Davis said he hopes his newfound life is proof others like him can be redeemed, including his friend and co-defendant, Deron Brown.
“Deron Brown doesn't deserve to die in prison," Davis stressed. "He should be free."
Brown was also 18 years old when he joined Davis for many of the robberies — crimes that did not end in injury or deaths. However, Brown is still behind bars with a release date of 2064.
Watch previous coverage: Hampton community leaders call for Portsmouth man's release from prison
“I'm not trying to justify robbery. It's a bad crime,” said Davis. “But when you got rapists, murderers out here on the street […] why is Deron Brown not free?”
Law students at Washington and Lee universities are working on Brown’s case. The same law school aided in Davis’ plea for a shortened sentence.
Davis said the support of the community and several state leaders like Speaker Don Scott and State Sen. Louise Lucas played a major role in his release. He hopes Brown can garner the same support.
Previous coverage: Rally in Portsmouth calls for Davis' release from prison
“God got me out of prison,” said Davis. “[God’s] hands are on me. I got a bigger purpose than just doing time.”
Because Brown and Davis committed their crimes after the abolition of parole in Virginia, the only avenue to an amended sentence is a pardon from the sitting governor. However, there have been unsuccessful bipartisan efforts in the General Assembly to pass a so-called “Second Look Law.” If it had passed, the law would have allowed prisoners who have served at least 15 years to petition their circuit court judge to modify their sentence.
I’ll follow through with updates on any future efforts.
