Story of Woman Who Became The Longest Serving Female Prisoner

Life can take a different, nightmarish turn if lived carelessly. This is the touching story of 61 years old Eraina Pretty, who was resentenced to time served in response to a request from a unit in the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office that works to free older prisoners at risk of contracting the virus and who pose no threat to public safety. 

In mid 2020, Pretty had been hospitalized with the coronavirus in recent months, her daughter said.

Pretty was serving a 60-year sentence after pleading guilty to a murder charge in 1978. She was 18 at the time. Her older boyfriend pulled the trigger after robbing a social worker, but she helped dispose of the murder weapon, according to prosecutors. They said she also later helped set up a robbery that led to the shooting death of a grocer and father of four.

“I was a little, scared kid. All I wanted was attention. I wanted somebody to love me,” she said in a television interview in 2015.

Pretty is the second prisoner released through the unit of the state's attorney's office. Calvin McNeill, 56, had been serving a life sentence for a robbery and murder committed while he was a teenager. McNeill was released in July and ordered to five years of probation.

Pretty mentored other prisoners behind bars and her record showed only three rules infractions in more than three decades, the newspaper reported. Twice, the Maryland Parole Commission concluded she was sufficiently remorseful and no longer a threat. However, Gov. Martin O’Malley denied her release in 2011. Gov. Larry Hogan denied her again last year.

Freedom At Last
A petition was started online to call for Pretty's release. As of Monday, it had 3,500 signatures. In May, 55 state delegates signed an open letter to Hogan urging him to free Pretty.

Finally, a Baltimore circuit judge granted the release of Pretty in December 2020, after she had spent more than four decades behind bars. Hope she finds it a bit more easy with life with this second chance.