A young black autistic man was sentenced to 50 years for a car crash. Tens of thousands of people are now calling for his freedom

On the day he received a 50-year prison sentence, Matthew Rushin called his mom and asked for a favor more fitting of a teenager away at college than a condemned man.

“Can you please order Thanksgiving dinner for all of us? There are 12 of us in here,” Lavern Rushin recalls him requesting on behalf of his cellblock. At the time, Thanksgiving was a few weeks away. “After I got off the phone with him, I just said, ‘Oh my God, he doesn’t realize what just happened.’ ”