CNA Staff, Apr 27, 2025 /
09:00 am
Judy Henderson spent 36 years in prison for a crime she did not commit, leaving her 3-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter behind while she was behind bars. Despite the hardship, Henderson never lost hope. Written above the sink in her cell was the Bible verse Jeremiah 29:11, which served as her daily reminder that God had plans for her future.
She didn’t wait around for that future to unfold, however; instead, she got to work helping other incarcerated mothers and still serves in this capacity today. Currently an administrative assistant for Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Henderson continues to assist mothers and families in need.
She has also written a book called “When the Light Finds Us: From a Life Sentence to a Life Transformed,” released on April 15, in which she shares her inspiring story from wrongful conviction to redemption.
Raised in a Christian household, Henderson was the oldest of eight. She grew up, got married, and had her daughter, Angel, and then her son, Chip, nine years later. Her marriage, which was physically and emotionally abusive, ended after 12 years.
Henderson, along with her children, then moved back to her hometown of Springfield, Missouri, to be closer to her parents and for a fresh start. However, within months of the move Henderson was charmed by a new man.
“He was very suave and debonair and wore a three-piece suit and had been in the ministry and a real estate broker and just everything that you would think a woman would want,” she told CNA in an interview.
Henderson shared that even her parents loved him because they “thought he was a good Christian.”
One day he showed up at Henderson’s home with suitcases and told her he was moving in. Henderson was taken aback and told him she wasn’t going to live with a man she wasn’t married to, especially with her children living with her.
When questioned as to why he felt the need to move in, Henderson recalled him telling her: “‘I think you need me. I want to love you and take care of you and the children and for us to be a happy family.’”
“As a battered woman, our thinking and the way we view things aren’t from a healthy lens,” she explained. “And so I was already kind of like Pavlov’s dogs, conditioned, and to be a ‘yes,’ ‘yes sir,’ ‘I want to take care of you’ kind of woman. Never thinking that there was any side to him that was not just good. And I did not see any of the signs. I didn’t even know what to look for because back then we didn’t have the battered women syndrome. We didn’t know the definition of the different stages that battered women go through.”
Soon after, Henderson began to see his bad side, which included dealing cocaine. Manipulated by her boyfriend, the two planned to rob a jeweler in Springfield, Missouri. However, the robbery turned deadly when the jeweler refused to hand over the valuables. Henderson’s boyfriend fired his gun several times, killing the jeweler and leaving Henderson injured.
Both were charged with murder, but only Henderson was sentenced to life without parole for 50 years for capital murder. A major issue in her trial, which was later deemed unconstitutional, was that both Henderson and her boyfriend shared the same attorney.
“The only reason he had him [the attorney] along with me is to make sure the strategy did not include him or nothing [was] being said bad about him or me taking the stand against him. It was another manipulating tool that he wanted to control,” Henderson said.
Henderson entered prison and admitted that she “was very angry with God.”
The mother of two was able to see her daughter throughout the years; however, her ex-husband did not allow Henderson to see her son from the age of 5 until 16, causing her more anger.
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“There’s two things you can do with anger — you can get bitter or you can get better. And I chose better because nobody cared that I was angry in prison. Everybody was angry in prison,” she shared.
So Henderson started to deal with her anger and “started fighting those emotions that Satan loves for us to feel.”
“I stood on the fact that I was going home because God’s promises are always ‘yes’ and ‘amen,’ and he promised in Jeremiah 29:11, ‘I know the plans I have for you,’ ‘a future,’ and my future was not prison. That’s not what God gave me.”
While in prison, Henderson became a certified paralegal and mentor for others who were incarcerated. She also worked toward legislative reform and led efforts to ensure that battered women could use their histories of abuse as legal defense. Her work in this area led to a landmark decision in Missouri that recognized battered women’s syndrome as legal defense.
She also pioneered the PATCH (Parents and Their Children) Program, which creates a safer, less traumatic experience for children visiting their incarcerated mothers. A trailer is used outside the prison and is decorated to look like a home with a TV, kitchen, and living room, and children never see handcuffs or guards, only volunteers who escort the children to their mothers.
“I kept very, very busy being productive,” she recalled. “I thought either you can do the time or the time can do you. And so I did the time. I got educated in every program they had to offer me.”
One program that deeply touched Henderson and brought her back to Christ was Residents Encounter Christ, a Catholic ministry that offered “lifers” — those with a life sentence — a chance at a three-day retreat to encounter Christ, which Henderson said helped her to “understand what the love of God was really about.”
On Dec. 20, 2017, Henderson received an unexpected visitor — then-Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri. At the sight of him she dropped to her knees crying. He approached her, took her by the shoulders, and said, “I want to apologize for the state of Missouri for not looking at your case sooner, and for you having to spend 36 years of your life locked away. I’m going to, on this day, commute your sentence to life with parole to time served,” she recalled.
“He opened the door and my daughter came running to me and my son and other family members and two of my attorneys … we were overjoyed, everybody crying.”
Today Henderson works with Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph and uses her skills and talents across departments to help veterans, women, children, and families in need.
“To see those women and those babies, and even the men, come in and be lifted up because of the work that we do is such a blessing and so inspiring for us to be able to be such great instruments for God,” she said.
Henderson recalled how she always saw God’s hand at work in her life and how “God does things in pieces, like a puzzle,” bringing people and events into your life just at the right time “if you follow his lead and let him guide you.”
“I was blessed enough to find my purpose and finding joy inside a dark, horrible, painful place. And so God is everywhere to shine his light … He shines a light for you to follow, and that’s what I did and I was blessed to be able to listen to his voice and to do what I what he created me to do. This was my purpose.”
Francesca is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency. She received her degree in Communications with an emphasis in Digital Media from the University of Colorado – Denver. She is also in charge of the social media for Catholic News Agency.
