Chris Young says there was a time he never believed he would live long enough to see a college graduation.<\/p>\n
Now, after once serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole, Young is preparing to graduate from Southern Methodist University on Saturday with a degree in economics and public policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ll be graduating from Southern Methodist University, SMU, with a degree in economics and public policy,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
Young grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he said poverty shaped many of the decisions he made as a teenager.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you’re living on the suffocating levels of poverty, you’re just thinking about how I can get out of this,\u201d Young said. \u201cThe only thing you’re thinking about is I need some money.\u201d<\/p>\n
By his teens, Young had been arrested twice. He later “began selling drugs.”<\/p>\n
Young said his third arrest led to a federal sentence of life in prison without parole.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was times where I saw myself being more successful, and it was times where I didn’t even see myself being alive,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
His case later drew national attention after U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp, who sentenced Young, publicly criticized the punishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cJudge Kevin A. Sharp, who ultimately resigned in protest of my sentence,\u201d Young said. \u201cAnd his resignation led to a Dallas native, Brittany K. Barnett, who’s also an SMU alumni, to help get me free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young\u2019s case also gained support from criminal justice reform advocate Kim Kardashian.<\/p>\n
After serving more than a decade in federal prison, Young was granted clemency by President Donald Trump in 2021.<\/p>\n
Young said the experience transformed his outlook on life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour past is not to hinder you, it is to propel you, and the future is not to scare you, it is to motivate you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Young recently published a memoir detailing his journey from federal prison to graduating from SMU.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Chris wouldn’t exist without that Chris,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Young says there was a time he never believed he would live long enough to see a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10499,102,104,103],"class_list":["post-297588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-colleges-universities","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}