(LEX 18) — A former University of Kentucky basketball player convicted of multiple sexual assaults soon will be a free man.
Tom Payne was granted parole at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange, after serving more than 30 years for multiple rapes.
Payne had repeatedly said he was remorseful and broken in previous parole hearings and said he was immature and unprepared to become UK’s first black basketball player.
“I want to show that a man can be redeemed. A man can come out of here and live a decent life.” Payne told the board in 2016. They denied his request then.
In a sit-down interview with LEX 18’s Nancy Cox, he said he was reformed and repentant.
The parole board decided to give him that chance Tuesday.
