Life for Pot – Release Nonviolent Drug
Offenders
100 Hale Rd, Zanesville, OH. 43701
March
10, 2014
Dear
Congressman ----
Reform of our Criminal Justice System needs to be
one of the primary concerns for Congress.
Our Justice is too harsh, too unevenly enforced, and too haphazard in its
prosecution and sentencing.
As the Senate and the House consider and pass
sentencing reform bills that will give sentencing relief to future defendants
and even a select group of those presently incarcerated, this will not remedy
the harshness of the penalty for many presently incarcerated who received the
brunt of the excesses of our costly War on Drugs.
This is the group of non-violent drug offenders who were given sentences of Life without Parole or de facto Life
without Parole for non-violent drug offenses.
These are non-violent citizens who will die in Federal Prison for offenses
that will not be charged or sentenced in the same manner in the future.
We are advocating for those who have no violence in
their case and no violence in their past.
These individuals were harshly sentenced because they were aggressively
charged with conspiracy and also
exercised their sixth amendment right
to trial.
Even though these inmates are non-violent, they are
typically held for years in High Security Federal Facilities simply because of
the length of their sentences. This is
an egregious waste of Federal dollars and an affront to justice.
After Deputy Coles remarks to the NY Bar asking for
suggestion for the problem of over incarceration, Life for Pot sent the
enclosed “Suggestion” to President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and
Deputy Attorney General James Cole
The
“Suggestion” is for a systemic or group clemency for this group.
We would ask Congress to consider passing
legislation that would grant retroactive sentencing relief to this same group
of individuals.
The war on drugs has
impacted so many families in such a harsh manner that many of us will not see
justice until the sentencing of Life without Parole or de facto Life without
Parole for non-violent drug offenders has been rectified.
We are enclosing the Suggestion that was sent to the
President and The Department of Justice.
Sincerely,
Beth Curtis
Life for Pot
