HENDERSON COUNTY, N.C. -- A man freed after two decades in prison, now hopes the state will compensate him for wrongful incarceration.
Thursday night at 11, News 13 chronicled Michael Alan Parker's transition from a generation behind bars.
A Charlotte attorney will soon file a petition for a pardon from Governor Pat McCrory, which could lead to a check for all those years in prison.
"You know I haven't received anything. Not even an apology for the 22 years taken from me," Parker said.
Right now, he's looking for work and living with his brother in the upstate.
"You don't go forward and expect people to hand you a red carpet and tell you to just walk it. That's not life," Parker says.
In 1994, the former Henderson County man was sentenced to eight life sentences after a jury found him guilty.
He was imprisoned for abusing his three children during what prosecutors called satanic rituals.
Nine people were charged but eventually cleared in that case.
"Everything was taken from me at that very moment. And my thoughts were, I'm gonna come back," he recalls.
In August, he was released after a judge questioned the medical evidence and found that the child testimony against Parker was coerced by their mother.
The sex crime charges were dismissed.
According to the national registry, Parker is one of four North Carolinians exonerated in 2014.
In the Tarheel state, wrongful conviction compensation can add up to $50,000 per year spent in prison, with a maximum of $750,000.
"I do feel I'm entitled because I did not commit a crime. The crime itself never happened," he tells us.
No matter what the governor decides, Michael realizes he controls his own destiny.
"Life is what you make it," he explains.
Parker hopes McCrory will look at a video clip of his youngest daughter Misty, who can speak to her father's innocence.
His other two children have not contacted Michael since his release.
Related Links:
Special Report: Freed From Prison
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