Love Without Parole

- There was no doubt in my mind that Kathlyn and I was gonna get back together.

- [Ron] I've seen guys when they fall in love and then lose that love, do crazy things.

- I love her so much.

I did ask for her hand in marriage and she said she would be honored to become my wife.

- [Kathlyn] Marrying a prisoner, very unusual.

And I just thought that everything would work out.

- The one thing about falling in love in prison is it keeps you up at night.

[ambient music] [birds chirping] - Today's my wedding day.

I'm gonna marry the most beautiful woman in the world.

I just, I never imagined that I could just be so happy.

I mean, I'm just, I can't even describe it.

I guess I'm just intoxicated off of love.

[laughing] [upbeat funky music] ♪ I was a real snoopy kid, you know?

I liked to just snoop around people's stuff.

Might steal a can of spray paint right here and go do some graffiti somewhere.

Just nonsense like that.

And yeah, my dad, he opened up a private detective agency there in Columbus.

Him and my mom was divorced and he would come like in the summer and take me on cases with him on the weekend.

It might be following somebody's wife or husband to see if they was having an affair, that kind of PI work.

But we was following a guy that was cheating on his wife and he also had outstanding warrants on him in Georgia.

Well, he was staking out his house in Phoenix City, Alabama.

And it's right across the river from Columbus, Georgia.

And my dad had told me, he said, "Son," he said, "If you ever get in any trouble, don't do it in Phoenix City."

[intense orchestral music] I was in this Junior Police thing now.

I got my little badge.

He got me a little thing like the FBI carries, you know?

And so I went up the hallway not trying to catch anybody doing anything.

I just happened to look in the classroom and there was two guys in there and they were going through all the little girls' purses.

So I went in and went through the door with my badges thrown out and tell 'em I'm Junior Police and just the whole nine yards.

And they're begging me, "Please, please, please don't tell on us," and da, da, da, da, da, da, da.

So I gave in.

"I said, all right y'all, go on."

So when they left, for whatever reason, I decided to go there and look in the filing cabinet where the teacher's purse was.

And I looked in her wallet.

She had a lot of money in there, but I got a $20 bill out.

[suspicious orchestral music] The attention I got from my dad from that, it was kind of like throwing gasoline on the fire and I was craving that attention from him.

And I think that's what really got me started doing wrong things.

When I was 17, I was experimenting with different recreational drugs and kind of hanging out with the hippies and that type of stuff.

- You can't look at his criminal history without just shaking your head as to why this man was sentenced to life without parole.

- [Alex] Michael first got into legal trouble when he was 17.

- I had a robbery and a possession of controlled substance.

Both of them happened at the same time.

I robbed a drug store, but I didn't rob him for drugs, I just robbed it for the money.

- Then when he was 21, he pleaded guilty to burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.

And then it was at 24 that he was found guilty of robbery in the first degree in Alabama.

And that is how he got his life without parole sentence under the Habitual Felony Offender Act.

In none of these priors was anyone injured physically.

- [Michael] I didn't listen to my dad and the advice he had gave me about not getting in trouble in Phoenix City 'cause that's where I committed my crime.

So it just kind of went in one ear, out the other.

- In 2019, we began looking into a number of cases of people sentenced to die in prison for non-homicide crimes, cases where there wasn't even any physical injury.

So as we were looking through these cases, Michael Schumacher rose to the top for a number of reasons.

If Michael were convicted today, one of his priors, the drug possession couldn't have even been used to enhance his sentence.

He would be sentenced to a fraction of what he was sentenced to in 1985.

- Dear Gene.

Well, I'll be 28 in 10 more days.

I really hate to think about it because it's depressing to know that I am just wasting away in here.

I see murderers and child molesters leave all the time and some of them should never be permitted to walk the streets again as a free man.

And then there are people like me who has never hurt anyone in their whole lives and they're told they will never get out.

That's really a strain on the brain.

- [Carla] Alabama has one of the harshest three strikes laws in the country.

You can be sentenced to life without parole, that means you will die in prison, if you have three non-violent priors.

It can be drug possession, it can be a check forgery.

- Needless to say, I was disappointed in myself in the way I'd done screwed up my life.

- We have the most violent, the most deadly, the most corrupt prisons in the country.

The fact that they are not completely traumatized, are not completely broken, but still have some hope after being in unconstitutional prisons for decades, it's really a miracle.

- [Michael] Well, Scrabble for me in prison was a way of, I guess, escaping the crazy stuff going on around you.

- Mike had always been enthusiastic when it comes to Scrabble.

He loves Scrabble, you know, he spent a lot of his time, and I loved Scrabble too, but I couldn't never get to the point where I could beat Mike at Scrabble, never one time.

Now, you thought I would've got close one time, right?

But he was good.

- And I would, when I first started off, I would never win.

And a lot of times, we would play for pushups to make it more competitive.

And I was starting to bulk up a little bit 'cause I didn't ever win, so I'm the one always doing the pushups.

[soft guitar music] - My name is Kathlyn Spragg and I live in Montclair, New Jersey.

- So I was getting to that point, I was lonely.

My family was passing away and I just wanted some contact.

- In 1992, there was a letter to the editor in the newspaper from Michael asking if anybody knew his family from New Jersey.

- [Michael] So I started writing to different newspapers and I made up the story in hopes of having somebody to write me.

- So my mother said, "I think you would be a good person to write to him.

You're a nurse and I think you could bring some happiness to his life."

- I didn't say I had life without parole 'cause nobody in their right mind, the way I thought, would read this and say, "Well, he's got life without parole.

I ain't finna write him."

- And at first, I kind of thought about it and I said, "I don't think so."

I don't know, I had a second thought and wrote to him.

- When I first got the first letter from Kathlyn, I was being investigated for murder because somebody got stabbed to death in front of my cell and I was standing over the body trying to get somebody to help me put 'em on a laundry cart to take to the infirmary just in case he still was living.

And it took about 30 days for them to figure out that I'd had nothing to do with this and I was scared to death about that.

But while I was in that cell, I got a letter from Kathlyn and she was witnessing to me about Jesus.

So I kind of, I wrote her a hateful letter back, kind of like a, well, it was just real negative.

And I was thinking that she wasn't gonna write back.

Man, I can still remember the first time she came to see me in prison.

There was something there that kind of clicked between us.

- I guess seeing him, seeing what a gentleman he was even in the circumstances he was under, there was just something special about him.

- The 18th of January, 1993, Monday morning.

I didn't tell Kathlyn about my sentence.

I can't put it off too much longer.

I've been keeping all of this in prayer and I trust that God will help.

- And at this point, I don't believe I had said to many people about Michael because I was afraid of the feedback I would get.

When I got back to New Jersey, I did think about Michael and did wonder where this was gonna go.

- When she went back to New Jersey, she evidently felt the same way 'cause she immediately booked another ticket to come back like in a week for another visit.

- By the second visit, there was really something moving there because I'm pretty sure on the second visit, we had our first kiss.

- But I wasn't convinced totally that she actually knew what she was biting off into.

And I tried to push her away a couple times and she wasn't having that.

And she said, "Look, I know what I'm doing and I know what I want."

- As time went on, it was harder and harder to leave.

- The 19th of May, 1993.

To start with, I have finally told Kathlyn the truth about my sentence and the circumstances surrounding it.

What a burden that was lifted from my shoulders.

Kathlyn forgave me for not being totally truthful and has vowed to stand by me until the end.

- I was kinda starry-eyed and had visions that everything was gonna work out.

When people couldn't see what I saw in the relationship between Michael and I, I felt angry.

I think I was 33 and I had never really had a courtship, a romantic involvement.

A couple of dates here and there, but this was the first man that I really went gung ho about.

- I've never been so richly blessed in my entire life.

I love her so much.

I did ask her for hand in marriage and she said she would be honored to become my wife.

- We were married by the prison chaplain on August 11.

- [Michael] I think we got about a hour after the ceremony where we could sit out there on the visiting yard and eat a little cake and talk.

- It was very hard to leave that day because Alabama does not have conjugal visits, so imagine being married and having some time to celebrate and then you have to separate.

[upbeat whimsical music] - [Michael] She went down the glamour shots when glamour shots was the thing back in them days and she had a whole little thing made out of glamour shots.

My whole cell was her.

You walk by my cell, there's no doubt about who my wife is.

- [Kathlyn] Marrying a prisoner, very unusual.

I had thought about it and I just thought that everything would work out.

- She would come down every two or three months, she would fly down.

It would just depend on what her work schedule is.

She used to send me little pieces of cloth or whatever paper.

She sprayed a perfume on it and I'd put 'em in my pillowcase, the envelope and stuff so I could smell her scent, her fragrance, and just little things like that, try to get by.

I got transferred to another prison.

She wanted me to go through the drug and alcohol program not because I have them problems, but because it's better living conditions.

I finally agreed to go ahead and go through this and it was a 18 month therapeutic community.

- And he graduated with flying colors.

The counselors wrote great remarks about his progress.

- And was asked to go on and work as an intern, as a staff member to help run the daily functions of the program, teach classes and that type of stuff.

- And he took community college programs to become a licensed drug treatment counselor.

So he recognized here was my downfall, here's what got me here, I'm gonna fix this.

And he did everything possible to do that.

He also was able to stay outta trouble.

I think he had a total of five disciplinary write-ups in 36 years.

You almost never see that.

He just kind of laid low.

- [Michael] So I started going to the law library and reading, just educating myself on what I needed to do.

And then talking with other guys in the law library.

And I basically done all my law work as far as my different filings and stuff.

- I had gone into this with open eyes and thinking I could change the world.

And we hired a lawyer and it went nowhere.

- [Michael] It's just denial, denial, denial.

And I'd always told her, "When you get to a point where you're not happy anymore, I want you to let me know so you can go on with your life."

- We were married for four years and it must have been around the three year mark that I realized things were not going anywhere.

- Dear, Gene.

For the last several months, Kathlyn and I have been having a hard time, and we, and then in parenthesis, I thought, we're trying to work through this.

Then lo and behold, two weeks ago, I called and she told me she was tired and couldn't go on any longer.

I was shocked, and hurt, and numerous other things.

I've been in a state of haze ever since.

At the moment, I don't know what to think.

Kathlyn won't take my calls and that makes the hurt more intense.

It's really bad at night.

I can't sleep and can only wonder, why me?

- When I decided to divorce him, he didn't question it at all.

He felt it was better to let me go.

- And the one thing about falling in love in prison, it's dangerous because when you allow your emotions to get so wrapped up to somebody you can't be with, it keeps you up at night.

I've seen guys when they fall in love and then lose that love do crazy things.

- I tried to be honorable, and I encouraged her, and told her I understood, and I respected her decision.

I just wanted her to be happy, that I still loved her.

We had a lot of group therapy inside that program anyway and I'm a big believer in group therapy, so I had a good support system so I was able to get through it as good as I could under the circumstances.

- And that I really thought was gonna be the last time I'd hear from Michael.

- Dear Ms. Crowder, my name is Michael Schumacher and I am incarcerated at Holman Prison.

Well, I remember I wrote Carla a letter after I seen her piece on the news where she had got, Appleseed got out the first person they got out from a robbery case.

- Even though we were divorced in '97, we still kept in contact.

- When I called Kathlyn before Christmas and was telling her about Appleseed, and Carla, and Alex, and the help they're trying to do for me with my case.

- And in the back of my mind, I'm just thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is another story that never goes anywhere.

- And so we were able to file a post-conviction petition that was unopposed.

Usually, district attorneys will oppose post-conviction petitions.

Once they get that conviction in life sentence, they want it to stick.

But there was such a injustice in this case and Michael had proved that he was a different person than he was in 1985, so the district attorney did not oppose.

And that gave the judge jurisdiction and an opportunity to grant our petition, which he did in, I think it was about 48 hours.

- I didn't even know a petition had been filed yet.

- And once a client is ordered released, I want him released.

The prison conditions are so dangerous and so violent that anything can happen on any given day.

- And she said, "You really don't know what's going on, do you?"

I said, "None.

What's happening?"

She said, "The judge signed your petition and he gave you time served.

And if today wasn't a holiday, it was Good Friday, you'd get out the today."

That was just more than I could digest at that moment.

I just broke down.

I started crying, tears running down my face and everything.

I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.

- And we were talking every day for a week because Michael was not sure what day the lawyers were coming to get him.

- I couldn't get enough of talking to her.

There was no doubt in my mind what was gonna happen with me and her.

- And I can't recall when we got all tangled up in love again.

- There was no doubt in my mind that Kathlyn and I was gonna get back together, and be remarried, and be a family.

- I remember him saying, "Kathlyn, I have always, always loved you and I always will love you."

And my throat got twisted up and I said, "Michael, I've always loved you too."

- [Carla] And he walks out with his bag of stuff and is elated, overwhelmed.

They're always overwhelmed.

What are you gonna say when all of a sudden you're free?

- Well, I'm staying at a re-entry ministry here in Birmingham called Shepherds Fold.

And there's several of us that's been released through Appleseed.

We was there for so long together, it was kind of like we became family.

My roommate Alonzo, he did 27 years.

I knew him his whole time over at Donaldson.

Ron McKeithen, he served 37 years and I knew him his whole time in there, me and him.

And here about two weeks ago, it was on a Sunday morning, we both ended up, we got talking about gratitude and the things we was grateful for today.

And the next thing I know, we're both in there crying.

I mean, it was just amazing.

And finally he said, "Man, I gotta get away from you."

I've got a great deal of gratitude for Alabama Appleseed 'cause they've basically given me my life back.

And the only way that I can show them how much gratitude I have is for me to be a success in my reentry back to society.

They made me rethink what I thought about lawyers, I'll say that.

[laughing] [upbeat funky music] - We're clearly a full service non-profit law center at Appleseed.

I think yesterday, they were at the hardware store.

Alex, our staff attorney was getting mulch and flowers and plants and making it really perfect.

She's been up since the crack of dawn.

We had our intern working on signs, the journalist, Beth Shelburne, who first got us connected with Michael's case because she wrote about him for years.

They've been corresponding for years.

She baked their wedding cake.

- But no, I didn't never think that I would be at Rose Park or any park in the free world getting married.

Just wanna pinch myself, make sure it ain't no dream.

It's just... uh... [laughs] It's just awesome.

[upbeat funky music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [camera shuttering] ♪ [camera shuttering] ♪ [camera shuttering] ♪ [camera shuttering] [music fades] [gentle inspirational music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [soft ambient music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪