Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Life for Pot - Release Nonviolent Drug Offenders

100 Hale Road, Zanesville, Ohio 43701 ph. # 740 452 2867

To:       President Barack Obama
            Attorney General Eric Holder
            Deputy Attorney General James Cole
                                                                                                            February 18, 2014

Dear President Obama,

This suggestion is in response to the speech given by Deputy Attorney James Cole at the New York State Bar Association Meeting on January 30, 2014.

Grant a systemic or group Presidential Clemency to a unique category of nonviolent federal inmates.  This group would be nonviolent drug offenders serving sentences of life without parole or de facto life without parole (attached is an example of such a group clemency).

There is a crisis in the Criminal Justice System caused by harsh and outdated sentencing.  The ACLU spotlighted the incarceration of non-violent offenders serving sentences of life without parole in their report of November 13 2013, A Living Death: Life without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses.  Since its inception, FAMM has been cautioning about the consequences of harsh sentencing and mandatory minimum sentences

There is a common thread running through these nonviolent life without parole sentences.

1.  It seems that a high percentage of these offenders exercised their sixth amendment right to trial and received a many fold sentencing enhancement for this decision,

2.  Another frequent element in these life sentences for nonviolent drug offenders is that they were charged and prosecuted for conspiracy with only cooperating witnesses and informants giving testimony. 

3.  Most of these inmates were sentenced under mandatory minimums and they are aging in place having already served considerable time. 

I trust that this suggestion will be given thoughtful consideration.  It is heartfelt and comes from one who has become familiar with many of these nonviolent citizens.


This is a solution for healing the wounds of the war on drugs and people and will also begin to end the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders.


To:    President Barack Obama
          Attorney General Eric Holder
          Deputy Attorney General James Cole


A SUGGESTION FOR ADDRESSING OUR PROPENSITY FOR OVERINCARCERATION: CLEMENCY AND THE WAR ON DRUGS

Grant a systemic or group Presidential Clemency to a unique category of nonviolent federal inmates.  This group would be nonviolent drug offenders serving sentences of life without parole or de facto life without parole.
Model this clemency on the clemency granted by President Gerald Ford and President Jimmy Carter who gave clemency to those who had violated the Selective Service Act during the War in Viet Nam.  The War on Drugs has been an equally divisive war imprisoning a generation of men and women.

Our prolonged War on Drugs has left this country with a legacy of thousands of nonviolent offenders serving sentences that may very well mean death behind prison walls.  There are children, wives, husbands, parents and siblings who long to have their loved ones home again.  Moreover this War continues to cost billions of tax dollars to support a policy that is at best suspect and losing the support of citizens it is designed to keep safe.

The public is no longer complacent about the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and cocaine.  This disparity has exposed a highly discriminatory distinction that has led to egregious sentencing for some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens.
At the present time, the legal status of marijuana is being challenged state by state.  The cruel irony is that every year there are 700,000 to 800,000 local, state and federal arrests for marijuana that most of the population sees as no more harmful than alcohol.  This is evidenced by the fact that marijuana is now being legalized across the country state by state at a staggering rate. 

If the covenant between those who govern and the citizens who are governed is to be maintained, the costly experiment of the War on Drugs needs to be seriously addressed.
This suggestion is modeled on a solution that resolved the legal status of offenders in an equally divisive war, The War in Viet Nam.  Using the power of the president for systemic pardoning is nothing new.  It’s been done frequently since our country’s first president - George Washington.

We urge the president to use the model of President Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.  After President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon on September 16, 1970 he initiated a Clemency Program for those who violated the Selective Act.  Ford granted 1,731 pardons to civilians, those who evaded the draft and 11,872 to military personnel, those who went AWOL.  President Jimmy Carter expanded the clemency healing many wounds and bringing thousands of young men back into the fold of citizenship.
Our criminal justice system needs a cleansing to restore faith in the integrity and justness of our law.  Non Violent marijuana offenders who have received life without parole or de facto life sentences for marijuana only offenses could be granted a group commutation after a significant number of years served – be it ten years or some other designation.  It could be commutation for those who had served 10 years and or reached the age of 60.

We are warehousing non-violent old men and women whose offense was selling a substance that is being reevaluated and legalized.
Nonviolent crack offenders could be addressed in the same manner.  Commute crack sentences when time served equals the time of incarceration for same weight cocaine offenses.
 
Systemic clemency has been used frequently throughout the history of our country.  This is a Presidential tool and responsibility that is usually used to restore justice when retribution has caused a rift in the social fabric.  The war on drugs is our contemporary example of this excess.


Alexander Hamilton (Federalist #74) Presidential Power

“Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little possible fettered or embarrassed.  The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.”

Monday, January 13, 2014

Thursday, November 21, 2013



 This is a link to the ACLU call to action.  The Report released on Nov 13 spotlights many of the non-violent offenders serving sentences of Life without Parole for marijuana who are on the      Life for Pot web site - http://www.lifeforpot.com

Please join the ACLU's effort on behalf of inmates serving sentences of Life without Parole for nonviolent offenses.  This is a petition asking the Justice Department to review these sentences.


End the affront to justice

prisoner
Shoplifting three belts. Siphoning gas from an 18-wheeler. Selling a single crack rock. These are just some of the offenses that can get you sentenced to spend your entire life in prison, until the day you die, with no chance of ever getting out for good behavior.
Thousands of people have been sentenced to die in prison for nonviolent offenses because of overly extreme mandatory sentencing laws that take away judges’ discretion. In case after case we reviewed, the sentencing judge said on the record that he or she opposed the mandatory sentence as too severe but their hands were tied.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013


This important report was released by the ACLU November 13, 2013.  The report discusses the unimaginable fact that there are 3,278 individuals in US Prisons serving sentences of Life without Parole for nonviolent offenses.

The individuals on the Life for Pot website are featured in the report.

Friday, August 9, 2013



LETTER TO UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION FOR LIFE FOR POT RELEASE NON-VIOLENT MARIJUANA OFFENDERS

FIRST - JUST A LITTLE COMMERCIAL

End Mandatory Minimums and remove marijuana from the
Schedule of the Controlled Substance Act



We have the right to expect our government to be fiscally responsible and respect the civil liberties of its citizens



EVERY YEAR U.S. CITIZENS VOLUNTARILY PAY TAXES TO THEIR GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE SERVICES FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD
http://www.lifeforpot.com

LIFE FOR POT
RELEASE NON-VIOLENT MARIJUANA ONLY OFFENDERS

 PLEASE REMEMBER $40,000.00 TO $72,000.00 WILL BE SPENT PER MAN
EACH YEAR TO KEEP THESE SENIOR NON-VIOLENT MARIJUANA ONLY OFFENDERS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

IN THE INTEREST OF JUSTICE AND FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
THEY SHOULD BE RELEASED
http://www.lifeforpot.com

LETTER TO USSC



Beth Curtis
Life for Pot
100 Hale Rd
Zanesville, OH. 43701
Ph.# 740 452 2867

July 10, 2013

Att: Public Affairs Priorities Comment
United States Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle NE
Suite 2-500 Lobby
Washington DC 20002-8002

                                                            RE: Sentencing Guidelines for United States Courts


Dear Chairman Patti Saris and Commission Members,

 This testimony is submitted by the organization LFP – Life for Pot http://www.lifeforpot.com

LFP has distinct and significant concerns with mandatory minimums.  We represent a group of Federal inmates who were convicted of non-violent, marijuana only offenses who have received Life without Parole in the federal system.

These inmates have no violent priors and no violence in their current cases, yet they are serving sentences that some consider worse than death.

Amendment 1.
Amendment 2.

In these cases, the controlling length of sentencing should be limited by a maximum, not a minimum sentence.  The Texas legislature did this by reducing the term for drug and property offenses from a maximum of 10 years to a maximum of 5 years.  Mandatory minimums make no more sense than mandatory maximums.

Non-violent marijuana offenders are serving sentences of Life without Parole while Venture Capitalists and entrepreneurs are developing business plans to manufacture and distribute the same substance.  Marijuana remains as a schedule I drug as states continue to legalize it in varying degrees.  These are difficult contradictions and demean the system.

Sentencing for conspiracy is overly broad and encompassing and also too easily prosecuted when the prosecutor's job is facilitated by sting operations, co-operating witnesses and mandatory sentencing.

These sentencing circumstances are not universally respected.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Julie Stewart has a piece in the Huffingtonpost about Presidential Commutation.  The US Justice Department issued a report to the United States Sentencing Commission encouraging them to make recommendations that would decrease the inmate population in Federal Prisons.  Commutations could compliment this effort and also point the way to sentencing that would save money, speak to justice and mercy while not jeopradizing public safety.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-stewart/clemency-reform-president-obama_b_3618749.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications#postComment

Thursday, June 13, 2013


This post is about Deputy Attorney General James Cole - Remarks from the Children of Incarcerated Parents Initiative "Champions of Change"

I find it very disturbing that one of the solutions to the problem of children whose parents are incarcerated would not be to end egregiously long sentences for non-violent offenders.  Hundreds of millions of dollars would be saved and children would need far less government support in the form of counseling, and could print and distribute far fewer booklets "Mommies and Daddies in Prison"

Rather than spending tax dollars for grants to "enhance parental and family relationships for incarcerated parents" children would actually be able to have an on going relationship with their parent.

These remarks about what the government will do to help children demonstrates an myopic view of of saving American families and saving American taxpayers.

By reudcing incarceration for non-violent offenders - we could start with non-violent marijuana offenders - we get a double bonus - Children with intact families - save money by not incarcerating their parents - save money by not needing to give services to children to help them adjust to having a parent incarcerated.

~ Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Thank you Tonya [Robinson] for that introduction and for your work on this issue and this event.  And congratulations again to all of the Champions of Change being honored today.  Your work is exemplary as you have dedicated your time and energy to speak up for a unique and vulnerable group: our nation’s children who are dealing with the consequences of a parent’s imprisonment.

It is estimated that more than 1.7 million children currently have a parent in prison, and many more have parents who are in local jails or lock-ups at any given time. As we’ve heard today, addressing these children’s needs requires a coordinated effort of multiple government agencies and social service entities to implement collaborative approaches.  This Administration is committed to providing support to children of incarcerated parents and their caregivers.  Through an interagency working group led by the White House, agencies across the Administration have been taking a hard look at the issues these children, their caregivers and their parents confront and how we can provide more support.  Today, we’ve announced a number of efforts to promote the well-being of these children -- from the time of their parents’ arrest to their parents’ reentry into our communities.      

Tuesday, June 11, 2013


 Great article by Nick Gillespie at Reason

NSA Scandal: Why We Get the Police State We Deserve. And What We Can Do to Fix That.

I've got a new column up at The Daily Beast about how Democrats and Republicans can both love Big Brother if he's got the right party affiliation. Snippets:
In the first flush of stories about how the National Security Agency is surveilling American citizens, one stomach-turning revelation hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves: We get the surveillance state we deserve because rank political partisanship trumps bedrock principle every goddamn time on just about every goddamn issue....

Sunday, June 9, 2013

OPA on "Denied or Closed Without Presidential Action"

This post by PS Ruckman on his great blog Pardon Power provides some insight on the operation of the the Office of the Pardon Attorney.  Many thanks to Professor Ruckman for his diligent work.