An Alabama man sentenced to life imprisonment after stealing $ 50 is now ready to walk

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While an Alabama judge sentenced Alvin Kennard to serve his sentence on Wednesday, a video of the courtroom showed his family raising their fists in the air.

"We all cried, we all cried," Kenny's niece Patricia, CNN's WBRC subsidiary, told Patricia.
In 1979, Kennard pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree burglary for break-in at a gas station, AL.com reported. He was sentenced to three years in prison and was put on probation.

In 1983, Kennard was found guilty of first-degree theft by brandishing a knife and stealing about $ 50 from a bakery, according to the WBRC.

Under the Alabama Offenders Act, better known as the "Three Strikes Act", this crime earned him life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The court records show that he was incarcerated in a state prison in Bessemer, Alabama.

In 2013, the Alabama Sentencing Commission adopted new guidelines allowing the judge to revisit the circumstances of the Kennard case.

Carla Crowder, executive director of the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, represented Kennard at the hearing, according to CNN affiliate, WIAT. She argued that if her client had been convicted today, he would have been sentenced to a maximum sentence of about 20 years, the station reported.

The judge must file documents with the Prison Department of Alabama before Kennard is released. It is difficult to know exactly when he will come home.

But as to what happened next, Jones said Kennard's family would be with him in the next phase of his life.

"We're just going to sit down and talk to him and see what he wants to do," Jones told WBRC, adding that Kennard said he wanted a job. "He wants to support himself and we will support him."

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