Minnesota officials commuted a first-degree murder sentence Wednesday, setting the perpetrator on a path to release after more than 30 years in prison.
Carlos Smith, 50, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1994 for killing Dural Woods in St. Paul. He also received eight years for aggravated robbery in an attack on another man, Raymond Barnett.
But Smith and advocates for him argued to the Minnesota Board of Pardons that he had made significant strides since he entered prison at the age of 19.
“I am no longer that illiterate, desensitized teenager,” Smith told the board, “and I no longer believe I am my life sentence. I am much more than that.”
The board — made up of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson — voted unanimously to commute the sentence. Smith is now eligible for a parole board hearing.
“After 32 years in prison...candidly, I don’t see where the four more years serves either justice nor society,” Walz said before recommending Smith’s commutation.
Hudson said Smith’s crime was brutal but that he had done his best to make amends.
“Your rehabilitative journey is remarkable,” Hudson said. “It is precisely the kind of thing that we would hope to see in the justice system.”