BALTIMORE — It's a story of redemption still being written. After spending 40 years in prison, Donald Braxton is proud to share his story of defying the odds years after his murder conviction.
One of the first things you'll hear from Braxton, making his way home from work, is gratitude for the simple things like freedom, a place to call home and a job to earn an honest living.
After spending 40 years in prison, Braxton is proud to share his story defying the odds years after his murder conviction.
"None of this would be possible without God in my life. It's a power above because at one time, I thought I would never be able to see the other side of the streets again," Braxton told WMAR-2 News.
After serving nearly 40 years in prison for the murder of a Baltimore surgeon in 1982, Braxton was released through State Attorney Marilyn Mosby's Sentencing Review Unit.
It aims to release inmates who served more than 25 years in jail on a life sentence or spent more than 25 years for a crime committed as a minor.
"When I went in, I was 16, when I came out, I was 56. I gave them people 40 years of my life. Why? Because I made one bad decision," said Braxton.
It's a decision he paid for in more than years.
"I had an opportunity to sit down and converse with my victims, and after that meeting, the victims hugged me and that was more [or] less closure, not only for the trauma that I brought to their family, but the trauma I brought to my family," he remembered.
Braxton now is grateful for re-entry programs for folks like himself through the city of Baltimore, offering him personal support and crucial resources like employment through a city-hosted job fair.
"When I talked to the brother who sponsored the job fair, he said man don't beat yourself up. You made mistakes, but we're going to start you fresh today and it just took the pressure off of me. I felt that much better," he shared.
Now weeks after landing a job with the Baltimore City Health Department he says "I'm like a baby in a candy store. Just a to see a check with my name on it, I earned this. I put the work in. I didn't put nobody life at risk. I didn't put my own life at risk."
Just as important as getting a job is having transportation to and from it.
That's where the Mayor's Office of Employment Development stepped in with it's Lets Ride to Work Program.
"She said Braxton, just follow the steps and do what I tell you and you'll be able to enjoy your first pay checks and you'll get 40 free rides," Braxton recalled.
"We decided to come up with a program that would not only assist folks with transportation, but to take away from that anxiety when you get a new job of trying to figure out bus routes or transportation," said Nikki Reed, the transportation coordinator explained.
She says it's being praised as a model for other major cities across the country.
"For so long, there's been a stigma over urban communities that folks that have been justice-involved, there's no jobs available for them. There's no outlet available for them upon re-entry into the community so we pride ourselves on helping those folks," said Reed.
They're helping Baltimoreans all while motivating Braxton to become a model himself for re-writing his own life story.
"I don't wanna keep saying that should've been me. It's going to be me. I'm going to succeed. Its no other way I'll have it," said Braxton.
To learn more about free Lyft rides for Baltimore City residents can click here.
If you’re a Baltimore City resident that needs a job, with or without a criminal background, click here for virtual assistance or walk into one of MOED’s Job Centers.
