PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Ronald Davis smiled ear to ear while showing me his first-ever paycheck. He earned it from a job he started not long after his Dec.1, 2023 release from prison, where the 44-year-old man had been since he was 18.
“It means the world to me,” he said. “I’m definitely on the right path.”
Davis was a high school student in Portsmouth in the late 1990s when he was sent to prison for committing a string of armed robberies at businesses across Hampton Roads. While his crimes did not result in injury or death, his sentences across several cities totaled 80 years. His release date was set for August 2068. He would have been 98 years old.
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Davis called his crimes “extremely wrong” and said “I deserved to be punished,” and “I apologize from the bottom of my heart,” before adding “I didn’t deserve to die in prison for the crimes that I committed.”
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.”
Danielson wrote a letter of support for Davis’ early release to former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Outcry from state leaders and community members calling Davis’ sentence excessive preceded Northam’s decision to pardon Davis. Before leaving office in 2022, Northan set Davis’ release date for December 1, 2023.
“I can’t even put [how I feel] into words,” said Davis. “[I’m] elated I got a second chance.”
During our conversation more than two months after his release, Davis said nailing down his first-ever job so quickly after his release from prison was important to him.
“I’m definitely on the right path,” he said.
Davis said he’s also using his freedom to bring attention to his former co-defendant, Deron Brown. Brown has been imprisoned since he was 18 years old for his role in the same robbery spree as Davis. Judges sentenced Brown to more than 70 years in prison.
“If I’m granted the opportunity for freedom, he deserves one as well,” said Davis. “Deron Brown deserved a second chance. He really does.”
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 is a bipartisan movement in the General Assembly to pass a so-called “Second Look Law.” If passed, the law would allow prisoners who have served at least fifteen years to petition their circuit court judge to modify their sentence.
“They deserve a second look,” said Davis. “[Some people in prison] have changed their life. They are not the same 18 and 17-year-old kids that came in the system when I did.”
Davis continued, “There’s a lot of Ronald Davises I left in prison that came in the system in 1999 and deserve a second chance. They earned a second chance.”
While the law is making its way through the General Assembly, Davis said he’s focused on passing along wisdom to young people on the brink of committing crime.
“You’re giving up years you can’t get back,” said Davis of his time in prison. “I missed my 20s. I missed my 30s. I missed half of my 40s.”
