Clerk error keeps Atlanta man imprisoned

ATLANTA, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Atlanta court officials are reviewing procedures after learning a clerk's error led to a man languishing in prison an extra seven months.

"We were all shocked and terribly upset," said Judith Cramer, court administrator, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "No one had ever seen anything like this before."

David Glass, 44, of Atlanta, was ordered released immediately at a hearing last Thursday when the error was discovered. He'd been sentenced to four months in jail on a cocaine-selling charge, but spent nearly a year in prison, the paper said. Fulton County Magistrate Richard Hicks apologized and gave Glass new clothes, the paper said.

Glass, who also goes by the name Roderick Carter, notified the court by letter in July of the error, writing that instead of a five-year sentence, all but four months of which was to be served on probation, he already had served eight months in jail.

"I would like a copy of my transcript so that it will show my time is up on my sentence," the paper quoted him as writing. He signed the letter as David Glass but was registered in state prison as Roderick Carter.