Charles “Duke” Tanner was born in Gary, Indiana, and began boxing at the young age of six years old. Destined for greatness Duke was trained by legendary boxing coach William Murphy and worked with Angelo Dundee, who famously trained boxing icon and former heavyweight champion of the world, Muhammad Ali. His love and commitment to the sport of boxing led him to competing In the 1996 Junior Olympic World games, where he won a bronze medal. Through a lot of hard work and perseverance, Duke had an undefeated 19-0 boxing record earning him praise and respect for his champion level skills as a young boxing professional. The chant everyone knew when he came out was “I got next!” and that would get the crowd excited.
The promise of Boxing fame and fortune came to a halt in 2004 when Duke was arrested for the first time in his life after becoming involved in a non-violent drug conspiracy. At 24 years old this first-time offender was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison to serve a double-life prison sentence in a maximum security prison, leaving behind his loving parents and his then two year old son who bears his name.
Duke was an exemplary inmate with no disciplinary actions because of the discipline he had from being a boxing professional and his renewed faith in God. He held himself accountable and took responsibility for the mistakes he made that sent him to prison and sought out to be a changemaker. Prison was hard and emotionally taxing for Duke. While behind bars, his oldest brother and both loving parents passed away, and his son grew up without him there to raise him. But Duke never gave up.
The efforts to get the attention of the one person on earth that could reverse what he felt to be an injustice was the President of the United States and Duke along with his supporters began to petition the White House for freedom during the Obama Administration. While he never received clemency from President Obama, Duke and his family kept up the fight for his freedom.
Duke has been a longtime champion for criminal justice reform because it has impacted him and his family personally. In 2016, his sentence was commuted to 30 years through the retroactive implementation of the ‘Drug -2’ law. For the first time in over a decade, Duke woke up to the promise of freedom with an actual release date. Knowing he could see his son again, as a free man he put himself on a faith walk to freedom and worked everyday to get released. While incarcerated Duke worked on self improvement, completing 1600 hours of programs, college courses, life skills and parenting classes in order to show he was serious about setting the example and improving in, mind, body and spirit be a productive asset to society and positive impact for his son.
When it seemed like the next round of life would keep him behind bars because of the lack of action and compassion from the White House, his life changed forever on October 21, 2020, because of President Donald J. Trump granting Duke immediate clemency. The President heard about the efforts to get justice for Duke through the efforts of thousands of people including his own son, Charles Tanner II. Duke was freed after serving 16 of his reduced 30-year sentence. Because of the actions of President Trump giving Duke a second chance, he went from having to serve a double life sentence to 30 years to 16 years to immediate freedom!
The next round of life for Duke has been one of joy in his freedom. A natural born leader and entrepreneur, Duke has decided to dedicate his efforts on others, especially young men, that are full of potential, dreams and talent but are often influenced to make poor life choices.
Today, Duke is proud to be reunited with his son, Charles II, who is on a full-ride college scholarship and excelling as a scholar athlete with the intentions of going into the corporate world after graduation. Duke started Duke Tanner Enterprises, FreedomWear 20-0 clothing line, and The Duke of Freedom, LLC. expanding his talents as an in demand motivational public speaker, panelist and writer focused on sharing his personal story of fighting for freedom and second chances, while working on other entrepreneurial projects. He is also proud to serve as an ambassador for the America First Policy Institute Athletes for America Coalition.
This former undefeated champion boxer’s inspirational life story is proof that with God all things are possible, and since God is the greatest power, we can never be defeated — just have faith, work hard and never give up.In this next chapter the chant is “Duke got Next” because Duke has a second chance, a new opportunity to help others win, and live their best lives outside the system.
Charles “Duke” Tanner lives by the motto, “No Losses, Only Lessons!”
