NORFOLK, Va. — A Norfolk judge agreed Monday to expunge the criminal record of Messiah Johnson, who spent decades trying to prove his innocence in a 1997 armed robbery case that sent him to prison for 132 years. He served two decades of the sentence before a conditional pardon from a former Virginia governor in 2018 set him free.
Johnson, now 52, was convicted of the armed robbery of customers inside Recas Hair Salon on 35th Street in Norfolk. He maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration. News 3 anchor Jessica Larche broke the story about Johnson's efforts to prove his innocence in 2017. She was in Norfolk Circuit Court Monday to cover his expungement hearing.
"I'm just excited that this chapter of my life in regards to expungement of my record," Johnson said Monday. "I get that part of my life back."
Watch previous coverage of the day Messiah Johnson was release from prison
Johnson has been fighting for this day since he was 23 years old when Norfolk police first arrested him for the crime.
"Then there [was] a hopelessness. You don't know if anybody's going to be there, to actually hear your voice. And that's an arduous journey," Johnson said.
No one was killed or injured during the robbery at Recas. There was no DNA evidence linking Johnson to the crime, and three people confirmed he was somewhere else during the robbery. Court records revealed the victims could not describe to police what the robbers looked like.
However, two weeks after the robbery, one of the victims identified Johnson as the robber after seeing him at night from a distance leaving a club.
Watch previous coverage of Messiah Johnson's decades-long fight for freedom
In 2018, the work of attorneys with the University of Virginia Innocence Project led to a conditional pardon from then-Governor Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe wrote that "credible evidence exists that support Mister Johnson's claims of being innocent."
After subsequent governors Ralph Northam and Glenn Youngkin didn't issue an absolute pardon, Johnson's attorneys filed a "writ of actual innocence."
This summer, the Virginia Court of Appeals said Johnson was already "absolutely pardoned of the offenses" because he "satisfied all of his conditions" of his conditional pardon, including completing a re-entry program and three years of supervised release.
That precedent-setting ruling took center stage during Monday's expungement hearing in Norfolk Circuit Court. Prosecutors said they supported Johnson's expungement, as did Judge David Lannetti.
"Hopefully, this is some minor makeup for this mistake that was done," Lannetti said.
Juliet Hatchett, a director of the UVA Innocence Project, said Johnson's case sets a precedent, but it's too early to know if others who've met the terms of their conditional pardons now also have absolute pardons.
Previous coverage: UVA Innocence Project takes on Messiah Johnson's case
"It is absolutely the closure that we've been looking for for years," Hatchett said.
An absolute pardon is important because it paves the way for wrongful incarceration compensation from the state.
Previous coverage: Virginia's compensation for the wrongfully incarcerated falls behind the national average
When asked if he's hopeful for compensation like what others with absolute pardons have received, Johnson said, "Absolutely."
In the meantime, Johnson is focused on growing the trucking business he built after his former felony record kept him from getting other jobs.
Johnson has a message for anyone still fighting to prove their innocence.
"For all the people who were, who are still in the position I was once in Um, to stay vigilant, um, to, uh, continue, um, fighting to have your voice heard," Johnson said.
Previous coverage: Data reveals innocent Black men in Virginia are more likely to be incarcerated than other groups
Johnson's cousin Tomas, who reached out in 2017 while Johnson was serving his 20th year in prison, was at his side for Monday's milestone.
"It's an emotional time, but we always have been behind him 100%. We always knew. We wanted the world to know," Tomas Johnson said.
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