LUBBOCK, Texas – A Lubbock woman was granted clemency by President Donald Trump Tuesday after serving nearly 14 years in prison.
Tynice Nichole Hall, 36, was 23 when she was convicted on various federal drug charges in 2006.
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Hall said she was called out from work at the prison and told to report to the unit manager’s office.
“When I get there, she made me basically think I’m in trouble,” Hall said. “So I kind of had an attitude with her — and then she finally told me that it was the best day of my life.”
It was 3:00 p.m. — and she was due to leave the compound at 4:00 p.m.
With just an hour to gather her things and thoughts, she knew just who to call.
“I ran and I called my mom, she was screaming because The White House was talking to her on the phone,” she said. “At the same time, and I told her about it so we were trying to find someone to come pick me up because I had to be out by 4,” said Hall.
Hall spent 14 years behind prison walls convicted of allowing her apartment to be used to distribute drugs back in 2006.
“I was laying in my bed — asleep — and I heard somebody knock on the door. I didn’t think that somebody was knocking on my door and then next you know I just my door busted open. And I was surrounded by guns. I was taken out the house, put in the backseat of a police car and taken down to the police station,” said Hall.
During her time in prison, she worked hard to better her life.
“I take college courses I took several apprenticeships. I worked at a UNICOR there. I had a pretty decent job,” said Hall, referring to the Federal Prison Industries, Inc.
The crime will stay on her record but she’s putting that in the past now, after being introduced to a whole new world on the outside.
“I couldn’t believe it — like I’m in a car, I’m on the passenger side driving and riding. I couldn’t believe it,” said Hall.
Now that she is free, she said she has to catch up to the times.
“Me and my baby was driving yesterday and I was like ‘Oh, okay,’ ‘Oh, what’s this?’ ‘Oh, I’ve never seen this there’s the Cheesecake Factory in Lubbock,” said Hall.
She spent her first day back in the Hub City shopping with her family.
When asked about Donald Trump, Hall said, “I appreciate him I’m thankful. I can only tell him I’m thinking so many times where it just becomes redundant.”