[Dion]

US man who avoided prison for 13 years due to clerical error....

Then came the knock on the door.....

Anderson was convicted in 2000 of armed robbery for holding up a restaurant manager in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. But he was never formally ordered to report for his 13-year sentence. So he never went and instead got married, learned a trade and raised several children.

When the orders to report to prison never came, Anderson suspected that his case had been overlooked and asked his former attorney what to do.

"He said it's a mistake, and they're going to figure it out — be prepared to be taken into custody," Anderson recalled. "Day by day, month by month, year by year, time passed, and they never picked me up."

So Anderson went about his life, never trying to conceal his whereabouts or identity. He married, divorced, married again. He raised three children of his own and a stepchild, owned and operated three construction businesses. He coached his son's youth football team in Webster Groves, Missouri, outside St. Louis, and ran the video operation at his church.

Anderson said he was just getting up around 6:30 a.m. on a hot July day when he heard a bang on the front door.

"It was one of those, 'Hey, open up the door!' type knocks," Anderson said. "I said, 'Who is it?' They said, 'U.S. marshals. Open up, or we'll knock the door down.'"

Jaime Halscott, another of Anderson's attorneys, said Gov. Jay Nixon's office has also been asked to consider commuting the sentence or pardoning Anderson. Nixon's spokesman did not immediately return a message on Friday seeking comment.

"He's been rehabilitated," Halscott said of Anderson. "There's no need to protect the community, and even if you want your pound of flesh, he's been in prison nine months. At the end of the day, there's no good argument that this man should be in prison."

Anderson's attorneys filed an appeal in February calling his imprisonment unfair and unjust. Attorney Patrick Megaro said the last time something like this happened in Missouri was 1912, and that person was not forced to serve his sentence.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/wo...601/story.html