An outdoor view of the D.C. Jail campus.

Mikaela LeFrak / WAMU

After serving 22 years in prison for a murder he committed when he was 16, a District man was released from prison on Monday under a city law that allows judges to reexamine life sentences for juvenile offenders.

Momolu Stewart’s case caught national attention after Kim Kardashian West wrote a letter to the judge in support of his early release. “Being locked up since he was only 16 years old, Momolu is a genuine example of the transformation that can take place when a person commits their life to personal atonement and helping to lead others to their own redemption,” Kardashian West wrote in her letter of support.

While in prison, Stewart has earned his GED and taken classes at Georgetown University. He has publicly taken responsibility for the murder of 22-year-old Mark Rosebure, according to the Washington Post. “I apologize to Mr. Rosebure’s family. I apologize to my family. I apologize to everyone. I am guilty,” he said at an August hearing, according to the outlet.

The other teenager convicted of Rosebure’s murder, Kareem McCraney, was the first person released under a 2017 D.C. law called the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act. The law allows for inmates to have their life sentences reconsidered if they were convicted as juveniles. (The D.C. Council is now considering extending the IRAA to offenders who committed their crime before turning 25.)

Judge Robert Salerno decided to grant Stewart’s petition for early release at an August hearing, but set up a hearing for last Friday to allow family and friends of Stewart’s victim to speak out. Per the Post, no one showed up to the hearing, and the judge ordered Stewart released on time served.

On Monday evening, he walked out the doors of the D.C. Jail and embraced the friends and family waiting for him to get out.

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