The first time I went to visit my father in prison, I was 12, and I hadn’t seen him since I was an infant. I was so terrified and angry at him, because I thought he was guilty. Prison is for bad men. Every little girl wants her daddy, but I thought mine was a criminal.

Now I know the truth: my dad, Mike McAlister, has been in prison for almost thirty years for a crime committed by another man. A man who looks just like my father.

My dad was convicted of abduction and attempted rape in 1986, but after he was in custody, similar attacks kept occurring. We now know the real culprit was a man named Norman Derr, and as you can see from the photos, he and my dad could be twins. Derr is now in jail, convicted of multiple counts of rape, but my dad is still in prison, too – even though a mountain of evidence points to Derr as the true culprit.

My dad’s only hope to get out of prison is a pardon from Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe. Will you please sign the petition to bring my dad home?

I’m not the only person who believes my dad is innocent. A host of law enforcement officials agree, even many who were directly involved in my dad’s case. Even Richmond’s top prosecutor recently said, “Mr. McAlister’s case presents the nightmare scenario we all fear – overwhelming evidence of systematic failure at just about every juncture.”

I spent my whole life robbed of having a father. He wasn’t there to watch me break swim team records or tell my prom date to take good care of me. He wasn’t there to walk me down the aisle, and he wasn’t there in the hospital to comfort me the night my husband passed away. 

I can’t change the fact that my father was taken from me, but I can keep fighting with everything I have for however much time we have left.

The good news is that petitions like this one really do work. Earlier this year, another innocent man named Tyrone Hood was finally freed after decades in prison, due in large part to a successful Change.org petition. My dad has a hearing coming up quickly on May 18, so we need to gather as many signatures as possible by then.

Click here to sign the petition to free my father, Mike McAlister, an innocent man who’s been trapped in prison for thirty years.

Thank you,

Becci Godwin
Haines City, Florida