Thousands of people have signed a petition to release Jay Maynor from prison.

The father is currently serving 40 years in an Alabama prison for the 2014 murder of Earl Brooks. Maynor pleaded guilty to the murder of 59-year-old Brooks. Now 6,000 people have signed a Change.org petition to free the 43-year-old father. “Jay is not a threat to society,” begins the plea. “He is a good man.  We would like to see him set free or at minimum a lesser sentence.” The petition explains that Brooks had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Maynor’s daughter from a young age. “Thirteen years earlier, Brooks had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Maynor’s 8-year-old daughter, who was also Brooks’ adopted granddaughter,” states the petition. “Brooks served 27 months for that crime before he was released on parole. He was a registered sex offender.” Maynor’s daughter Julia waived her right to anonymity and spoke to AOL. "Raymond molested me for either four or five years," Julia Maynor said. "I don't remember when it started happening but I know it was for a very long time. It was long enough for me to think it was completely normal and made me to feel that he actually loves me in a different kind of way than my mother and father loves me." The shooting, Julia Maynor said, was prompted by something she said to her father about the abuse. "It was just something I said out of anger to my father,” explained the mother of three. Maynor then got on his motorbike, drove to Brooks home and shot him twice. He also fired one shot into a store where another man worked who had also been found to be abusing his stepdaughter. Julia Maynor says her father is a good man who simply would do anything to protect his children. "He took my innocence away and only served like 18 months, and now I suffer daily from what [Brooks] did to me," she said. “My father was protecting me, like a father should do,” she continued. “He is an amazing father, actually the best. He loves us so much.”