ANGOLA, La. (AP) - Rapper Lil’ Boosie has been released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where he had been serving an eight-year sentence on drug charges.
Warden Burl Cain says the 31-year-old rapper - whose real name is Torrence Hatch - left the prison just after 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Cain said Hatch remains on supervised parole until 2018.
Hatch first arrived at Angola in 2009 after pleading guilty to a third-offense marijuana possession charge. Since then, he’s faced numerous accusations, including a highly publicized murder trial in the 2009 killing of Terry Boyd. Hatch was acquitted of first-degree murder in Boyd’s death in May 2012.
Hatch would have been released earlier than Wednesday had he not violated various prison rules, including some telephone use rules, shortly after he arrived about five years ago.
“When he first came here, he didn’t understand that he had to do what we say,” Cain said, adding that Hatch lost “good time” three times.
The warden said the time and date of Hatch’s release wasn’t made public “just to keep everything calm.”
While at Angola, Hatch completed at least one substance abuse program and at least one religion-based program, Cain said.
“He needed all of that. He needed the treatment programs,” Cain said.
The rapper also earned his GED certificate. Hatch told Cain, “He wished his grandmother could’ve been there,” Cain said.
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Hatch deserves to be treated just like any other paroled inmate.
“He’s kind of in a unique situation where he can deliver a lot of messages, and I really hope it’s the right messages,” Moore said.
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