KNBC has a fascinating report on an escaped convict caught by police after three decades on the lam. Susan Lefevre got into drugs as a teenager and was caught participating in a $200 drug deal (there she is looking pretty cracked out in her mug shot). She received a sentence common at the time, but which seems unduly harsh now: 10 to 20 years in prison. Thinking she wouldn't be out of jail before she was too old to have a family, and that it was impossible to appeal, she let her grandfather bust her out of prison.
Then she changed her name to Marie Day, got a job, and became a wife and mother of three. Now she's been caught and put back into jail more than 30 years later.
KNBC.com has a series of jailhouse interviews in which she tells the story of how she wound up in jail in the first place and how she kept from being caught for so long.
Imagine the shock of her husband when she found out his wife was a fugitive from justice. He's issued this statement: "I've known my wife, Marie, for over 23 years, and she is a person of the highest integrity. During that time, she has been a caring and wonderful wife and mother. She has raised three beautiful children and has worked hard to build a good life for them in this community."
It's a tragedy for the family, but breaking out of jail is a pretty illegal thing to do. Just because the original punishment was too harsh and she's led an upright life since then doesn't necessarily mean she should get off scot free now, right?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 2)
1. after three decades, they should leave her alone, a 200$ drug deal? when she was a minor? common give her a break, she turned out to be a model citicen,just let her go already.
wolf-1 at 7:42PM on May 14th 2008
2. Just where in the Constitution does it give this government the ability to persecute anyone for drug use? If no violent crime was committed, and no one was hurt, then there is no legal justification to put this woman back in jail. Hash was smoked as far back as ancient Egypt, Babylon and Lebanon, just check the excavation sites. But our self-righteous government goobs who can't do anything positive about our banking crisis, energy crisis, world food crisis etc can still find the time and tax money to waste on this woman. What about the illegal war in Iraq and its countless dead and wounded victims? Maybe if our current regime were tried at Nuremburg under the same code as the Nazis, we'd have our country back again and Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney would be in prison where they belong.
J. R. Schifino at 9:10PM on May 14th 2008
3. Hello,
I am Marie Walsh's daughter. I cannot express the extent of my gratitude to those who have been in support of my mother and her release, it means the world to my family. My dad, brother, sister and I are absolutely devastated by the loss of our mom. But every kind and supportive word empowers our fight to bring her home. Please continue to support us in any way you can.
Visit this website:
www.freesusanlefevre.com
Sign this petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/FreeMom/petition.html
Write the governor of Michigan:
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995-65331--,00.html
Feel free to email me with any additional support or information:
FreeMyMom@gmail.com
As Abraham Lincoln once said, mercy bears richer fruit than strict justice. My mother has been nothing but a loving mother, wife and contributing member of society over the past 32 years. Putting her in prison would not only waste taxpayers dollars and burden a overcrowded prison system, but completely devastate my family. You are not taking a criminal off the streets, you are taking a wonderful mother away from her children.
To those of you who believe differently, I leave you with the following quote:
“As one reads history, not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time, one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.” ~Oscar Wilde
Sincerely,
Maureen Walsh
FreeMyMom@gmail.com
maureen at 9:29PM on May 14th 2008
4. umm, there are still plenty of ppl in jail (and sometimes prison, depending up the charges, state and JUDGE) over drug charges of a similar nature. i guess since MOST of those doing the time are young, poor, decidedly male and black as well as uneducated, it doesn't matter, right? a piece of me says, after all this time, we should just let it go. or at least have her serve a sentence that is conduicive to the crime. but there's another piece of me wondering, that if more judges were like that THEN, if we'd have so many young, uneducated, poor ppl in jail NOW. but i did read a study that said that harsher sentences on "small things" lead to ppl choosing the worst crimes to committ b/c if you're going down, you might as well do it BIG. i really want to see this play out before i make my final judgement. she should definitly be made to serve some kind of punishment. she committed a crime!
Devynn at 10:03PM on May 14th 2008
5. Tried to write you an email of support but gmail claims there isn't such a page, I wrote it out exactly as it was . Sorry
Tracey Shore at 11:09PM on May 14th 2008
6. I have seen this article twice..yet no one gives the specifics on her crime..why is that?Was she selling drugs...did someone get hurt? was thier robbery with this action,,,I think we need to know exactly what the crime was before any action is taken...
Santa at 12:52AM on May 15th 2008
7.
Look at the Mug-shots. At least she's having fun!!
mac at 3:16AM on May 15th 2008
8. Please tell You MOM,Dennis and Don said hello,and to look forward to being back home soon,no one in their right mind would want to keep her away from her Family,she served her time looking over her shoulder and by being a good citizen.
You Mom could go to schools now,and help young people get their lives together.
In our book,she is a example of those that paid her dues,and Our Governor here should set her free..Dennis&Don
Dennis at 6:57AM on May 15th 2008
9. Ada.....this story is MONTHS old. MONTHS.
IT'S MONTHS OLD.
You can't find anything current?
Really?
Strados at 7:25AM on May 15th 2008
10. I understand she changed her life since then we all have, but a crime is still a crime and as its written if you can do the crime you pay the time. I feel for her family they didnt ask for this but they all also have to understand that they have all lived a lie for over 23 yrs now. What else has been lied about?
Tammy at 7:43AM on May 15th 2008
11. Just because its been 30 yrs doesnt mean that she should get a slap on the wrist, she could have appealed and a number of other things, all these interviews only offer her "side" of things and yes as kids we all make mistakes but we don't all bust out of jail, if she wasnt a member of high society and was in a low to middle class she'd be getting her time back no matter what, I dont feel favoritism should be showed just because she aluded the law for 30 years. What would that teach our further generations? I dont feel the original punishment was exactly fair in fact it was very harsh but what should be nailing her now woulndt even be that crime, its the escape from prision that bothers me....anyone remember Bucky? He broke out and when cornered did alot of bad things along the way but didnt get rendered freebecause he was smart enough to get out of one of our jails
Tammy at 7:44AM on May 15th 2008
12. understand she changed her life since then we all have, but a crime
is still a crime and as its written if you can do the crime you pay
the time. I feel for her family they didnt ask for this but they all
also have to understand that they have all lived a lie for over 23
yrs now. What else has been lied about?
Tammy at 7:45AM on May 15th 2008
13. Just because its been 30 yrs doesnt mean that she should get a slap
on the wrist, she could have appealed and a number of other things,
all these interviews only offer her "side" of things and yes as kids
we all make mistakes but we don't all bust out of jail, if she wasnt
a member of high society and was in a low to middle class she'd be
getting her time back no matter what, I dont feel favoritism should
be showed just because she aluded the law for 30 years. What would
that teach our further generations? I dont feel the original
punishment was exactly fair in fact it was very harsh but what should
be nailing her now woulndt even be that crime, its the escape from
prision that bothers me....anyone remember Bucky? He broke out and
when cornered did alot of bad things along the way but didnt get
rendered freebecause he was smart enough to get out of one of our
jails
Tammy at 7:45AM on May 15th 2008
14. The first purpose of our legal and penal systems is to protect the public. Considering that she led an exemplary life since busting out 30 years ago, I'd say we've nothing to be 'protected' from. The second purpose of our penal system is to rehabilitate the offender. I'd say she's done a better job of that on her own than any penal system could have or has ever accomplished. To desire freedom is an act as natural as breathing. Equally natural, is that a free society must not ignore the facts: 1)she was young when she lost her highschool sweetheart to the Vietnam War and subsequently got involved with drugs, 2)the sentence was unduly harsh even for the time, 3)her family coerced her into pleading guilty to save the family the embarassment of a trial, 4)'real' criminals 'target' people like her...the only way for her to 'earn' the right to live in prison would be for her to kill somebody, 5)current thinking about drug abuse has changed...we now recognize it as an 'illness'...if the same crime had been charged today, she would've gotten probation and been sent to a drug rehab.
Keith J. Mohrhoff at 8:09AM on May 15th 2008
15. I don't think that she should get off with just a slap on the wrist, but sending her back to prison is the wrong thing to do in my opinion. A sentence that long for a drug deal (even back then) was absurd. Force her to do a large amount of community service work instead.
The only problem I see with not sending her back to prison is the message that it sends to people that "you can break out of prison, live a good life afterwards, and everything is ok". Obviously I disagree with that, but everything about this just screams it would be wrong to lock her away for 30 years. If they feel they must send her back, at least reduce her sentence dramatically, so that the punishment fits the crime.
zatheus at 8:33AM on May 15th 2008