Reformed prison escapee who became Christian minister faces jail after being caught 37 years later

Residents in Kentucky have started a petition for Bill Burchfield's release

Harriet Agerholm
Monday 04 July 2016 13:48 BST
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Bill Burchfield was convicted for manslaughter but escaped twice
Bill Burchfield was convicted for manslaughter but escaped twice

A runaway prisoner who became a Christian minister and upstanding citizen is facing a return to jail after being tracked down by authorities 37 years later.

Bill Burchfield, from Georgia, who had assumed the identity of his dead cousin, Harold Arnold, was traced to Kentucky by detectives and now may serve 10 years in prison.

Community members in Laurel County, a small town in Kentucky, have described the 67-year-old, who they knew as Harold “Bill” Arnold, as “just a good man” who gave free meals to those in need.

After receiving a sentence of 15 years of hard labour for voluntary manslaughter in 1979, Burchfield escaped on two occasions, according to The Economist. Following his break-out from the Jackson County Correctional Institute in 1975, he was captured and his sentence was increased to 16 years.

But while on a work detail at a landfill site four years later he ran away again, this time successfully. He had reportedly asked to go and relieve himself in some bushes and then disappeared.

After the death of Burchfield’s wife Vera Sue in 1973, he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He argued it was an accident and that a gun he was holding went off by mistake when she tried to wrestle it away.

The facts of the case for which Burchfield was convicted are hard to establish because there was no trial. One of Burchfield’s former lawyers has since died and the other cannot remember the case.

Tim Johnson, an acquaintance of Burchfield in Laurel County, said: “Bill Arnold is as good a man as I’ve ever met. I never know’d anybody that’d say he’d wronged them.”

Residents in the Kentucky town have started a petition demanding his release, which has gained hundreds of signatures.

Bill Burchfield was captured 37 years after his escape

Burchfield’s lawyer, Jason Kincer, said: “Shouldn’t [his] debt be mitigated by the life that he has lived?”

The case raises questions about whether the US criminal justice system should primarily rehabilitate or punish.

Burchfield, who is awaiting charges for his escape, said: “I always tried to treat people the way I wanted to be treated. I think my cousin would be proud.”

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