Prominent prison legal advocate Mark Wilson was freed after 37 years in prison.
The Oregon Board of Parole granted a release date of Jan. 9 to prominent incarcerated legal expert Mark Wilson, whose litigation efforts inside prison have helped thousands of other prisoners. Wilson was previously the subject of a HuffPost investigation , which detailed the state Department of Corrections’ pattern of retaliation against him.
Wilson’s upcoming release date is only possible because of his recent lawsuit against the corrections department, which ended in a settlement earlier this year. That lawsuit was the second time the department agreed to settle with Wilson over retaliation claims.
In 1987, when Wilson was 18 and addicted to methamphetamine, he participated in a double homicide during a home burglary. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two life sentences with the possibility of parole in exchange for testifying in his codefendants’ trials. The family members of the victims, Rod and Lois Houser, opposed Wilson’s release.