Sometimes
the truth really IS stranger than fiction—to the point where if the same story were made up, I feel that even a
talented writer might be hard pressed to compose it believably. A good example of this is the recent drama of Cornealious “Mike” Michael Anderson III. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, this Missouri man was
convicted as one of a group of men who committed armed robbery almost fifteen years ago. He was sentenced to thirteen years in
prison. But due to a clerical error, he was never picked up and taken into
custody after the trial. Since his attorney told him to just wait, that’s what he did—for
thirteen years! He never ran, never hid, never changed his name, never tried to
conceal his whereabouts in any way. In fact, he went back to school, became a
Master Carpenter, started his own business, got married, bought a house and had
four kids. In that thirteen years, he never committed another crime.
But then
when his scheduled release date came along, the error was caught, and Mike
Anderson was arrested.
This last week a judge finally heard the case and ruled that Mike Anderson was more
rehabilitated now from his own efforts than the Department of Corrections could have
ever managed. The man was released. For me, this was truly joyful news. I'd been following this story ever since hearing about it on "This American Life" back in February (the next best thing to reading a book is listening to it on tape, and the next best thing to books on tape is "This American Life," people), and attempted to make other people aware of the case. Personally I feel the judge's ruling was a wonderful
example of a civil servant embracing the spirit of the law rather than the
letter of the law, and everyone is better off for it.
But back to
my original point: this story is remarkable in a lot of ways, and could make an
awesome novel! But I know I could never write it—I could pull out all the stops
and work myself like crazy, and it would still sound hokey and unbelievable. A
man not going to prison because of a clerical error? And nobody noticing for
THIRTEEN YEARS? C’mon! And yet…here it is: real life telling a far better tale
than any I could pull off. A gifted writer could make this great. Undoubtedly
some biographer will get a contract with Mike Anderson and the book will be
written—but it will be nonfiction in the end.
Nonfiction with a happy ending. :-)