RICHMOND (AP) — On paper, Vince Gilmer was granted freedom more than two years ago. Later this week, he may actually leave prison.

The former small-town North Carolina doctor and convicted murderer whose medical mystery captured widespread attention after being documented in a popular radio program and a book, was conditionally pardoned in January 2022. But because of the strict terms attached to the pardon and what his advocates describe as delay or indifference from government officials and health care institutions, he’s remained behind bars in a southwest Virginia prison as his health deteriorated.

Gilmer, 61, has Huntington’s disease, a rare, devastating and incurable disorder that attacks the brain and affects patients’ cognition and physical abilities. His diagnosis — unraveled after his conviction by the physician who took over his practice and oddly enough shares his last name — was the basis of the pardon, which was granted after many years of advocacy.

Vince Gilmer admitted to killing his father, whom he accused at trial of committing horrific acts of sexual abuse against him as a child, and he received a life sentence. Though no one claims Gilmer is innocent, his supporters argue that the outcome of his 2005 trial, where he insisted on representing himself and jurors rejected his insanity defense, would likely have been different if he had been properly diagnosed at the time. They argued that mercy, in the form of admission to a treatment center, was the more appropriate outcome.

With the help of a North Carolina lawmaker, Gilmer’s medical practice successor and now advocate and legal guardian, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer, has found a hospital willing to accept Vince Gilmer as a long-term patient, in line with the pardon terms. He received confirmation from Virginia officials that Vince Gilmer will be released Thursday, he said in an interview.

“It’s such a beautiful moment. But at the same time, we’re all stressed and anxious because, you know, you never know what could happen in between … the door to the prison,” Benjamin Gilmer said.

The Virginia Department of Corrections did not directly address a question about when Gilmer would be released but confirmed in a written statement that it was working through “logistics” to establish a release date “as soon as possible.”

Benjamin Gilmer, who granted a series of interviews to discuss the case, recently visited the Marion Correctional Treatment Center where Vince Gilmer is in custody, to share the news. The two men are not related.

“He had a moment of joy and expressed that as best he could. But it was a little anti-climactic in a way because he’s in such bad shape,” Benjamin Gilmer said.

Vince Gilmer is in the “terminal phases” of his illness, confined to a wheelchair and fairly close to being bedbound, struggling to eat, losing his cognitive abilities and at high risk for aspiration pneumonia, Benjamin Gilmer said.

The hospital setting will provide more robust treatment and allow Vince Gilmer to “experience a little bit of life and dignity,” including more regular visits from his mother, said Benjamin Gilmer, who has arranged secure transportation for the transfer.

“I’m praying I can get there and just hold him again,” said Vince Gilmer’s 80-year-old mother, Gloria Hitt.

Benjamin Gilmer wrote in his book, “The Other Dr. Gilmer,” that he became fascinated with Vince Gilmer’s case after he joined the family medicine clinic just outside of Asheville, where Vince Gilmer used to work. Patients and former colleagues described Vince Gilmer as a beloved community member and dedicated clinician who made house calls, remembered birthdays and cared for patients regardless of their ability to pay.

Benjamin Gilmer eventually wrote to Vince Gilmer and began the effort to try to square his reputation with the horrific crime for which he’d been convicted. His quest was documented by journalist Sarah Koenig, later the host of the wildly popular podcast “Serial,” on an episode of “This American Life” titled “Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde.”

Vince Gilmer’s father, Dalton Gilmer, was found dead in southwest Virginia near the North Carolina border in 2004, shortly after Vince Gilmer checked him out of a psychiatric hospital. He had been strangled and his fingers were severed. Vince Gilmer claimed at trial that his father made a sexual advance toward him and he snapped at a time when he was also hearing voices, the Richmond Times-Dispatch previously reported, citing trial transcripts.

Two prosecutors involved in the trial could not be reached for comment. The judge who presided over it said through a spokeswoman at the firm where he now works that he is unable to comment on prior cases.

Benjamin Gilmer’s sleuthing eventually led to a Huntington’s diagnosis confirmed by lab work. He began to connect with lawyers and other advocates who would assemble a strategy to free Vince Gilmer from prison by pursuing a clemency petition.

Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, denied the request. Then Gov. Ralph Northam, his Democratic successor, did too. But Northam, a physician, reconsidered and issued a conditional pardon on one of his final days in office. The terms said Vince Gilmer had to be accepted to a medical or psychiatric facility, remain on probation and parole as directed by the Virginia Parole Board and provide his own “secure” transportation.

Efforts got underway to find Vince Gilmer a placement. Benjamin Gilmer wrote that he unsuccessfully petitioned every Virginia public mental health hospital, as well as appropriate public mental health facilities in North Carolina, “but they required that Vince first be in a Virginia hospital for a state-to-state transfer. Vince was stuck in a bizarre no-man’s-land,” he wrote.

“Nobody cares that they have a man dying in their prison,” Benjamin Gilmer said in an interview before he’d received confirmation of a release date, adding that many private facilities were also reluctant to take in a convicted murderer.

Efforts by North Carolina state Sen. Julie Mayfield led to a breakthrough. Mayfield said in an interview she found a western North Carolina hospital that by mid-2023 had agreed to take Vince Gilmer.

If all goes according to plan, a welcome brigade along with a film crew working on a documentary about Vince Gilmer’s story plans to meet him Thursday in Marion, with a special meal in hand: a Coke, Twinkies and a Whopper.

Benjamin Gilmer said his advocacy for Vince Gilmer, which has now stretched over a decade, has convinced him that the United States incarcerates far too many mentally ill individuals in a way that’s “not compatible with ethics or humanity or the Hippocratic oath.”

“We haven’t had any trust in the Virginia carceral system over the years,” he said. “We’re not going to celebrate until Thursday.”

Some people say nothing good happens after midnight. Well, those people are wrong, because here is an interesting question from Fletch Brendan Good that came in at 4:41 a.m. Eastern time:

Several people have asked me about this! And yes, it’s true: Between Lexington and Thomasville, the lanes on Interstate 85 cross over each other. Which means, for three…

The passage of the North Carolina House Bill 237, also known as the “Unmasking Mobs and Criminals” Bill, in the state Senate on Wednesday brings the state one step closer to making it illegal to wear face masks in public, regardless of the threat posed by the COVID pandemic.

The legislation was voted on by a margin of 30 to 15 along party lines, with five abstentions. Revisions to the bill will mean the state House will vote on it again. But even if North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoes the law, the Republican-majority state legislature will have sufficient votes to override him.

Although the bill leaves a number of exemptions in place, it specifically deleted the exemption, “Any person wearing a mask for the purpose of ensuring the physical health or safety of the wearer or others.” Meanwhile, masks can be worn as part of “traditional holiday costumes in season,” or if the person is “Engaged in trades and employment where a mask is worn for the purpose of ensuring the physical safety of the wearer, or because of the nature of the occupation, trade or profession.”

Public mask wearing has long been illegal in the state, but with many exemptions. The exemption for public health concerns was put into effect with the onset of the COVID pandemic. The measure to remove that exemption was introduced to the Senate Judiciary Committee by right-wing Republican Senator Buck Newton.

Newton told reporters that the action was being taken in part because of recent demonstrations by students on college campuses who were protesting the genocidal Israel onslaught against Palestinians, which has completely devastated the Gaza enclave and its more than 2 million inhabitants.

Newton’s claims that students are attempting to cover up their identities and that this represents some form of criminal enterprise are simply preposterous. “This isn’t just about protests,” Newton said. “I think it’s clear that people are seizing the opportunity to do things they’re not supposed to do, to break the law, or to intimidate people, and to keep their identities hidden, and it’s time for that to stop.”

Republican supporters of the legislation openly admit that the purpose of the measure is to help law enforcement crack down on protesters wearing masks, arguing that they were abusing pandemic practices to hide their identities.

In reality, students and protesters have, by all accounts, conducted themselves with considerable restraint. They have demonstrated exceptional courage in the face of attacks by the police and fascistic thugs. Police have carried out mass arrests of young people and faculty members who have come out in support. Many also take the ongoing pandemic as a serious reason to protect themselves and others from infection.

In that, they represent an important development of conscious social awakening in response to the actions of Biden and company in shutting down all public health measures in addition to the rampant US militarism. The students oppose the government’s and respective universities’ complicity and support for these war crimes, exercising their essential democratic rights laid down in the Constitution.

In fact, the assured passage of the law will only strengthen the hand of the state and will be seen as a landmark action that will be mirrored across the country. Challenges to the North Carolina bill will assuredly reach the Supreme Court and find legal expression for state repression while potentially placing the lives and well-being of people in danger. One can even assume that those wearing respirators or who cover their heads and faces for religious and cultural reasons will face hostility and repression from the local police and fascistic mobs.

Ohio’s Attorney General Dave Yost’s warnings made in a recent letter to the presidents of Ohio’s 14 universities underscores the gravity of these developments.

Yost wrote, “In our society, there are few more significant career-wreckers than a felony charge. I write to you today to inform your student bodies of an [1953] Ohio law that, in the context of some behavior during the recent pro-Palestinian protests, could have that effect.” That law states, “No person shall unite with two or more others to commit misdemeanor while wearing white caps, masks, or other disguise.” The breaking of the “anti-disguise” carries a fourth-degree felony charge and up to $5,000 fine and five years on community control, Yost reminded them. That the law has never been applied until now means it amounts to a state-sanctioned threat.

These anti-mask laws Yost references were enacted in the 1940s and 1950s by states in response to the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, whose members hid their identities to perpetrate violence and terror on their victims. However, as historians have noted, these laws weren’t intended to protect the victims, but were rather employed to curb the public displays of the Klan which were discrediting Democratic Party efforts to defend Jim Crow segregation. They remain in place in 18 states including North Carolina.

The COVID pandemic remains an ongoing public health concern. Despite the dismantling of all metrics that provide real-time information on the state of the pandemic, nearly 22,000 people died of COVID in the first four months of 2024. For the 2023/2024 influenza season, hospitalized COVID patients had a 35 percent higher rate of death than those admitted for the flu.

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Meanwhile, the Economist update on the impact of Long COVID estimates a prevalence of 2 to 7 percent or upwards of half a billion people worldwide with some level of ongoing impact from their infection.

For the US, the magazine estimates a loss of $152.6 billion in GDP in 2024 alone from COVID. For those who have left the workforce, 953.6 million hours of work were lost. Those with reduced hours account for another 366.3 million hours and those who continue to work with their condition cost more than 177 million hours. One needs only to extrapolate these figures to the rest of the globe to understand the magnitude of the COVID pandemic atop the nearly 30 million that needlessly died because of the greed of the ruling elites that have placed profits over life every step of the way.