Success on the Inside: His Mind Has Taken Him Far Beyond Prison Walls. Now It’s Time for His Second Chance
By FAMM’s Storytelling Team
“Healed people heal people,” says Eric Watkins, addressing his peers at his graduation ceremony.
It is May 2023, and Eric is graduating from North Park Theological Seminary with a master’s degree in Restorative Justice Ministry. He is awarded high honors, wins the “Innovative Ministry” award, and receives four certificates. He has offers of employment from the National Public Housing Museum and North Park University. The future looks bright, except he can’t accept any of these offers. Now 49, Eric has been in prison for nearly 27 years, with no release in sight. In June of 1997, Eric was sentenced to natural life without the possibility of parole.
The story begins in his childhood, after Eric’s mother, Elayne, married Rufus Simpson. After losing a job, Rufus fell into addiction and became physically and emotionally abusive toward Eric and his mother. He whipped 5-year-old Eric and locked him in the dark basement and in the car for long periods while his mother was working or running errands. On one occasion a firefighter had to smash the car window to get Eric out on a hot day. On another, Eric tried to call the police when Rufus was assaulting Elayne. Rufus pulled a gun on mother and son, then locked them — along with Eric’s 2-year-old brother — in the basement for two days.
In November of 1992, Rufus Simpson was shot and killed. Three men were arrested and convicted of murder. Later, law enforcement claimed that Eric arranged the murder, and he was convicted under Illinois’ “theory of accountability” law, through which people can be arrested, charged, and convicted of a crime they not only did not commit but also did not plan, agree, or intend to commit, and at which they were not even present. The other defendants with Eric — including the actual shooter — received lesser sentences, served their time, and were each released before 2015.
For Eric today, as a longtime resident of Stateville Correctional Center, it would be natural to be bitter. Or to have given up. Instead, he has spent his time inside in an exemplary way.
Prior to 2012, Stateville offered no higher education programs. Yet Eric used the prison library to educate himself on civil and criminal law. He then taught other incarcerated individuals and helped some with basic literary skills. He has also used his informal education to advocate for himself and others. Amazingly, he successfully brought a pro se 8th Amendment civil rights suit that secured adequate health and medical standards for people in prison.
In 2012, Eric was selected to be part of a college-level restorative justice program sponsored by DePaul University. In 2015, he enrolled in the North Park Theological Seminary, simultaneously receiving a scholarship to the “University Without Walls” program at Northeastern-Illinois University. He was awarded a bachelor of arts degree from Northeastern in 2020, and then won a scholarship to undertake the master’s degree program at North Park.
Throughout, Eric has gone above and beyond. At North Park, he founded a mentoring ministry, “Higher Education Ameliorates Lives” (HEAL), providing mentorship and college scholarships. At Northeastern, he created the Young Citizens of America Program, an educational program for inner-city youth about issues such as their legal rights and nonviolent conflict resolution. At DePaul, he has helped create a database to track misconduct issues in the Illinois criminal justice system to help prevent and deter wrongful convictions.
Eric has even found time to work with a state senator on legislation that aims to help reintegrate incarcerated individuals back into society, and he has represented incarcerated people at conferences on higher education in prisons. And it almost goes without saying that he has had no infractions during his time inside.
Eric is seeking clemency from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. He has many letters of support from professors, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, state senators, and pastors. Their verdict is unanimous: Not only is Eric no threat, he would contribute greatly to society on the outside. State Sen. Robert Peters and Jennifer Dean, deputy director at Chicago Votes, jointly write: “We strongly believe that Eric Watkins is a man uniquely positioned and credentialed to be a leader in the reform of our criminal justice system.”
Eric’s greatest support system, however, is his family. His siblings, Tremayne Simpson and Tyara Simpson-Morales, jointly state: “Losing our father [Rufus Simpson] was extremely difficult, but also losing our brother compounds our circumstance and makes it nearly insufferable. Eric is a good man. He is our brother and best friend. Releasing him releases us and helps us heal.”
There is also an added urgency for Eric to be released. His mother recently suffered a second stroke. In her words, his release would simply mean “happiness, a chance to really rest and know that he’s okay.”
“How you see us is how you free us,” Eric said in his graduation speech at North Park. “For right now, we are good sons and good citizens, good fathers and good friends. We are artists. We’re innovators. We are healed healers, redeemable redeemers, and we’re expert answers to problems that prison can’t solve.”
FAMM supports pending legislation to reform the “theory of accountability” legislation that put Eric behind bars for the rest of his life. Meantime, clemency from Gov. Pritzker would offer Eric the second chance this “healed healer” badly deserves and his family, and society, needs.
Do you agree that people like Eric deserve a shot at a second chance through clemency? If so, help FAMM make the case here.
Ann Espuelas is FAMM’s Vice President of Family Outreach and Storytelling.
