Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick may have been granted early release from a Louisiana prison.
In a statement released Friday the Ebony Foundation says Kilpatrick will be released after a 24-day quarantine — one of 3,000 prisoners included under an early release program due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to The Associated Press, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons declined to comment but did say he remains in custody at the prison in Oakdale, La. Federal prosecutors in Detroit had no information about the possible release as of Friday.
Kilpatrick has served seven years of a 28-year sentence for perjury, obstruction of justice and other crimes from 2013 — he's not up for parole until 2037.
The Ebony Foundation called for Kilpatrick's early release in coordination with the National Baptist Convention of America, the NAACP, National Business League, and a coalition of over 30 churches earlier this year.
Michigan Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo delivered a letter to President Donald Trump from Detroit leaders seeking clemency for Kilpatrick back in February, according to the release.
The Ebony Foundation's Reverend Keyon S. Payton says, "there has been a lot of debate about his guilt or innocence, we were arguing neither, rather, we were opposing the excessive nature and length of his sentence. Kwame Kilpatrick's punishment of a 28-year sentence did not fit the crime."
If Kilpatrick is released due to the pandemic, the move would not be clemency and it is unclear if he would remain free when the crisis is resolved.
— with files from The Associated Press.