By Bob Egelko,Courts ReporterNov 27, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)
“Ear Hustle” co-hosts Earlonne Woods, left, and Nigel Poor record a podcast in 2019. On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom formally pardoned Woods.Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle 2019
Earlonne Woods, who co-founded the unique “Ear Hustle” podcast on prison life while serving 22 years behind bars, has seen his show downloaded by 80 million listeners and has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. On Wednesday, Woods gained another reward — a pardon from Gov. Gavin Newsom for the assault and attempted-robbery convictions that sent him to prison.
Woods, now 53, “has provided evidence that he is living an upright life” and deserves to be recognized for “the work he has done to transform himself,” Newsom said in announcing the pardon, which makes it easier for former prisoners to find employment.
Woods was first convicted of kidnapping and robbing a drug dealer in Los Angeles at age 17 and spent six years in prison. In 1995, two years after his release, he was arrested on charges of assault and attempted robbery. Because of his previous convictions, he was sentenced under the state’s “three strikes” law to 31 years to life.
He took educational courses in prison and was enrolled in the Prison University Project at San Quentin when he met artist Nigel Poor, who was teaching photography to inmates. She proposed a project to inform outsiders about life behind bars, and in 2016 the Radiotopia network chose them from more than 1,500 applicants for a podcast, which they titled “Ear Hustle,” prison-speak for “eavesdropping.”
The podcast — the first ever entirely recorded and produced inside a prison — was made available to prisoners elsewhere and has drawn listeners from around the world.
It attracted another fan in then-Gov. Jerry Brown, who commuted Woods’ prison sentence in November 2018. Woods has “clearly shown that he is no longer the man he was when he committed this crime” and “has set a positive example for his peers and, through his podcast, has shared meaningful stories from those inside prison,” the then-governor said.
Woods lives in the East Bay and has continued to produce the podcast, with new episodes every few weeks. In 2020, he, Poor and co-host Rahsaan Thomas were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting. In 2021, Woods and Poor published a book titled “This Is Ear Hustle.”
In response to the pardon, Woods thanked Newsom and others who have supported him.
“Many of us who have transformed our mindsets and lives and who are working to help others, continue to encounter negative stigma and barriers based on things associated with our past,” Woods said in a statement. “This type of thinking can prevent someone from getting a job or traveling freely. This pardon eliminates those judgments on me, and makes it easier for me to do more effective work in the community.
“I hope stigmas in our society will be erased over time, so that formerly incarcerated people who have transformed their lives will have more opportunity to inspire others, and show them that change really is possible.”
Reach Bob Egelko: begelko@sfchronicle.com; X: @BobEgelko
Nov 27, 2024
COURTS REPORTER
Bob Egelko has been a reporter since June 1970. He spent 30 years with the Associated Press, covering news, politics and occasionally sports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, and legal affairs in San Francisco from 1984 onward. He worked for the San Francisco Examiner for five months in 2000, then joined The Chronicle in November 2000.His beat includes state and federal courts in California, the Supreme Court and the State Bar. He has a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento and is a member of the bar. Coverage has included the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court and her removal by the voters, the death penalty in California and the battles over gay rights and same-sex marriage.
