Inmate who escaped Alabama prison, raised family dies

Philip Chance, an inmate convicted in a 1972 murder who escaped from an Alabama prison and raised a family in Michigan before the state extradited him 14 years later, died on Nov. 8. He was 59.

The Alabama Department of Corrections Tuesday confirmed Chance’s death, which the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative announced Monday. The cause was congestive heart failure. He was an inmate at Kilby Correctional Facility in Mt. Meigs.

"His tragic story should not have ended with an early death in an Alabama prison," said Bryan Stevenson, executive director of EJI, in a statement Tuesday. "He represented rehabilitation and redemption in a remarkable way following a biased and unreliable conviction.  The state of Alabama should have done better."

Chance, then 15, was visiting family members in 1972 when police arrested him and charged him with helping his brother and a cousin kill Walter Drinkard, an 81-year-old storekeeper in Choctaw County, during a robbery. There were conflicting reports on whether Chance was outside at the time, waiting in a car with his brother John, or if he held Drinkard down while his cousin, LeRoy Smith, stabbed him.

"It was as heinous a crime as I ever investigated," retired Choctaw County Chief Deputy Chester Rentz told The Associated Press in 1994. "A little bitty man -- him and his wife run this little country store, trying to make a living out of it. They decided he'd lived long enough, I reckon."

Chance said he was in the car with his brother when he saw Smith run out with a box of money. According to EJI, Chance cooperated with police and showed them where the stolen money was. Prosecutors claimed Chance and his cousin helped plan the robbery. Chance was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Chance said he was coerced into making the confession and told if he did so he would serve only a year in prison. He told The Associated Press in 1995 he was a victim of a "Southern brand of justice where blacks are concerned." Drinkard was white; Smith and the Chances are black.

Compiling a good conduct record behind bars, Chance got into a work release program and drove a van. After the state denied Chance parole in 1981, he escaped from the work release program and moved to Michigan, where he married and raised two daughters. In 1994, Chance worked in a construction-maintenance job.

Alabama made at least two extradition requests to governors of Michigan in 1982 and 1984, but the governors denied each one. In 1982, at the time of the original request, Gov. William Milliken, a Republican, cited Chance’s “very fine character” and “the support of family and friends.”

"He was a law-abiding citizen, had a job, was married, had children and I didn't feel the ends of justice would be served by returning him," Milliken said in a 1994 interview.

The state granted parole to John Chance in 1995. Smith remains incarcerated at Bibb County Correctional Facility in Brent.

Chance remained on the fugitive list, but EJI said he "stayed out of any trouble" while in Michigan. According to a 1996 court decision, police stopped and arrested Chance at least ten times “at least in part” because of his listing as a fugitive. Local police released him each time.

But in 1993, backed by a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prevented governors from granting asylum, Alabama Attorney General Jimmy Evans again pressed for extradition of Chance. Michigan Gov. John Engler initially denied the request, but a federal appeals court upheld it, ruling that Engler could not deny it.

In a concurrence, U.S. Circuit Judge Nathaniel Jones agreed with the court’s decision but – citing then-Alabama Gov. Fob James reinstatement of chain gangs and comments from an Alabama state senator at the time saying the Bible endorsed slavery -- expressed concern that Chance would have to return “to a jurisdiction and prison system with a wretched history and, even more distressing, a present demeanor violative of international standards on the treatment of all prisoners.” Alabama ended its use of chain gangs in a 1996 settlement.

Returned to prison, Chance applied for and won parole in 1999, a decision that was harshly criticized by then-Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor – now a U.S. Circuit Judge – and then-Gov. Don Siegelman. The board reversed its parole decision after receiving a highly critical letter signed by Siegelman.

“I thought it was a horrible public policy move by Pardons and Paroles to release someone convicted of murder, who served part of a sentence, and escaped and enjoyed his freedom for 15 years,” Siegelman testified in a 2002 lawsuit brought by Chance to win release. “To let him out after three years might pose a danger to people.”

Chance lost the lawsuit and future attempts to seek parole.

EJI said Chance completed a GED and a divinity degree while in prison, and had an exemplary disciplinary record.

Chance’s family – citing illnesses that included diabetes, a stroke, kidney failure and quadruple heart bypass surgery – sought parole for Chance earlier this year and then, more recently, medical furlough to Michigan to allow his daughters to take care of him. EJI says both requests were denied.

Bob Horton, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections, said in an email Tuesday that interstate medical furloughs are not permitted under state law and that ADOC must supervise and evaluate inmates throughout their sentence.

“The ADOC assisted Chance with his medical release application and never denied his medical furlough,” the email said. “The issue was his inability to find a qualified in-state sponsor who would accept the responsibility for his care.”

Chance's survivors include his two daughters, who were born after his escape.