Former President Barack Obama congratulated an ex-convict he released in 2016 after she was named to the dean’s list in college.
In 1996, a 26-year-old Danielle Metz entered prison in California to serve three life sentences plus 20 years for helping her husband traffic cocaine. Obama granted Metz clemency in 2016, releasing her from prison.
Metz, trying to make the best of her second chance, applied to attend Southern University at New Orleans. At 50 years old, she was accepted and entered as a freshman in the fall of 2017.
Her second semester at SUNO, Metz scored a 3.75 GPA and made the dean’s list. She immediately called all her family and friends to tell them the news. The one person she could not reach, but was key to her achievement, was Obama.
“You don’t know what you did for me,” Metz imagined telling the president that freed her. “I’m finally coming into my own. I made the honor roll.”
Metz’s wish was made public in a July 11 profile of her in USA Today. The story apparently got around to Obama, who sent a letter congratulating her.
“Congratulations on your graduation from Southern!” Obama scrawled in the handwritten letter, apparently mistaking her making the honor roll with graduating from SUNO.
“I am so proud of you, and am confident that your example will have a positive impact for others who are looking for a second chance,” Obama wrote. “Tell your children I say hello, and know that I’m rooting for all of you.”
