For the first time in almost 20 years, the Nebraska Board of Pardons has commuted the sentence of a man serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.

Jerry Erving Jr. will be home with his wife and family in Omaha by Thanksgiving, thanks to a unanimous decision of the three-member Board of Pardons on Friday.

Erving, 68, was convicted in 1965 for the shooting death of an Omaha bartender. The shooter, Larry Hall, has been out of prison since the mid-1980s, his life sentence commuted from life to a definite number of years during an era when the Pardons Board routinely made such decisions. Once a sentence is commuted from life, an inmate can achieve parole eligibility.

"This case was very, very unusual. It was the stars and moon aligned," Attorney General Jon Bruning of the decision.

"This is a 68-year-old inmate, in prison for 44 years, convicted of first-degree murder because of the felony murder statute," Bruning said Monday.

State law says a person is guilty of murder if he participates in a crime during which a murder takes place.

"He wasn't the guy who pulled the trigger. The guy who pulled the trigger has been out for 20 years," said Bruning.

And, he said, Erving had a good prison record and "an unbelievable support network, a wife, a house." Bruning said.

Between 1973 and 1990, the Pardons Board commuted the life sentences of 32 inmates. But the last time the board reduced a life sentence so a person convicted of murder could be released was in 1990, at the end of Gov. Kay Orr's term.

Public attitude about crime and life sentences has become more conservative and the state's top elected leaders -- the governor, attorney general and secretary of state who comprise the Pardons Board -- have refused to commute any sentences since.

Friday's decision does not mean a return to the old days.

"We are not opening the floodgates," Bruning said. "We are very tough on crime. This is a unique situation."

Former Gov. Charlie Thone, who represented Erving pro bono in his request for a commutation, was also part of the winning combination, according to Bruning and Secretary of State John Gale.

Thone believes mercy is part of the Pardons Board's job. Keeping people behind bars for 40 to 50 years for something they did as very young men does not serve justice, he said in a telephone interview Monday.

Thone read the board a letter of support describing Erving's good work ethic and attitude from the supervisor in the prison's upholstery department.

Thone, who was governor from 1979 to 1983, said he believes in the death penalty for heinous crimes and is "a law-and-order man from way back."

But he also believes in mercy in unusual circumstance -- when there has been rehabilitation and there is no threat to society.

"Erving served 44 years for a crime committed when he was drunk. He was 24 then. He is now 68."

Erving's paperwork wasn't ready for a hearing at the end of Orr's term.

And one month later, there was a new Pardons Board with a different attitude about life sentences, according to testimony at the hearing.

"It was a matter of timing and elections and changing of the guard," Bruning said.

Had Erving asked for a commutation at the right time, he would probably be out, he said.

Gov. Dave Heineman agreed this was the kind of unusual case the board has said it would consider.

"There always seemed to be a bit of unfairness," said Heineman, because the person who committed the act is out.

He suggested Erving's life sentence be commuted to a specific number of years that would translate into Erving being home Nov. 20, in time for Thanksgiving.

The Pardons Board approved the commutation without a formal hearing because Erving's request had been before the same three men at least seven times. The man who pulled the trigger has testified in support of commutation at previous hearings.

Gale said the board had been moving closer to a pardon for Erving and had asked Bruning to research his case.

"There was a crystallizing moment during that meeting that the time has come to act," he said.

Thone called the decision "a little extraordinary."

He said he took the case because Jerry Erving's wife, Evelyn, was persistent.

"She is just like the Energizer Bunny. She wouldn't take no for an answer when I told her I was out of this pardon business."

Evelyn Erving said she and Jerry prayed during their evening telephone call Thursday night before the Pardons Board meeting.

"I asked, 'Lord, your will be done.'"

Jerry Erving was not at the hearing and did not learn about the commutation until the couple's Friday night call.

"I thought he was going to burst," Evelyn Erving said.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.