Tom Bird Released on Parole
During May, 2004, the Kansas Parole Board ordered the release of Tom Bird from prison. August 30 would have marked his Twentieth Anniversary in jail, but the board spared him that shame.
Bird first came up for parole in October of 2000, after having served more than 15 years of his life sentence for murder. Parole officials stated at that time that they seldom had seen a person more ready for release, but tradition held that lifers had to do at least 20 years. The Parole Board decided in 2001 to keep Bird in prison until 2005.
Within weeks of the board's 2001 decision, Chris Cowger, Bird's attorney, his wife Terry, Pastor Ken Kothe, Dave Racer, members of Tom's family, and other friends began trying to win him a hearing prior to 2005. They succeeded, and the Board met with Tom during early the spring of 2004. Within weeks they decided to order his release.
On June 14, Tom walked out of Lansing Correctional Facility, Lansing, Kansas, for the first time since he entered there in September of 1984. Coincidentally, Dave Racer received the first shipment of the new book, In the Shadow of Joseph, co-authored by Bird, Pastor Kothe and Racer, on the same day as Tom's release. His best friend and wife of 16 years, Terry, finally was able to take him home. A great job awaited him at Impact Design, the same company for which he worked inside the prison.
Parole restrictions limit his travel to a 50 mile radius of his home, and there are other parole considerations which he must rigorously keep.
Finally able to see his family outside of the prison, Tom and Terry decided to renew their wedding vows at a ceremony attended by nearly 200 people on August 7, just three days after their Sixteenth Anniversary. You can read the story about the renewal ceremony here. (You can also read the story about their wedding in prison here.)
Tom has always maintained his innocence, and did so, even knowing that the Parole Board might have turned him down indefinitely. Now that he is out of prison, though still under severe restrictions, he has begun working toward his exoneration.
You can write to Tom Bird here.