Johnny Small talks about plans for life after prison

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Johnny Small is adjusting to a new life Friday after almost 28 years in prison.

“New smells, everything, TV phones, I’m just trying to get used to it,” Small said.

Sitting around the living room talking to family is something he never thought he would do again.

“I was shocked when he ruled like he did, but I’m glad he seen through what was going on,” he said of Judge Douglas Parsons who delivered the ruling.

Yesterday Parsons vacated Small’s life sentence sending him home on house arrest. A jury convicted the, then 16-year-old, of murdering Pamela Dreher in 1989. He and his family have sicne maintained his innocence.

“They had to watch me grow up in prison,” Small said. “I had to watch them grow up in pictures and behind bars.”

In 2012, a key witness came forward saying he lied on the stand after being threatened by detectives. For small it took many years to forgive those who investigated the case.

“It was destroying me more than it was helping me,” he said. “Finally, an old timer told me ‘you just need to pray about it’ and that’s what I done.”

That’s when the NC Center for Actual Innocence stepped in.

“They contacted me out of the blue when I had already given up,” Small said. All I was looking for was parole or a map contract because nobody wanted to hear my story.”

The center’s director Christine Mumma said the state has the option to retry small, but they all want peace for him.

“He doesn’t need to lie awake at night, like he did last night, wondering if someone is going to be coming to pick him up and take him back to prison,” Mumma said.

Mumma’s confident Small’s future wont be in the confines of an ankle bracelet or jail cell.

“I don’t believe there’s anyway he can be retried in this case, there’s no evidence, there’s nothing left,” she said.

Until then, Small is looking forward to the simple things.

“Be proven innocent for real so I can go to the beach and go fishing, feel the water over my feet, feel the sand between my toes,” he said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

The center will also assist Small with adjusting to society.