Saturday, April 30, 2016

Whole Lotta Talkin' Goin' On (Part 36)

 This is from the Pardon Power Blog.  The promise of Clemency to thousands was made, but as time runs out many fear it will not be fulfilled.


Sunday, April 24, 2016

Seventy-Five-Year-Old Disabled Veteran Will Die in Prison for Growing Marijuana Plants for Personal Use

 States that still give Life for Pot - 
Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas - are there more?


Seventy-Five-Year-Old Disabled Veteran Will Die in Prison for Growing Marijuana Plants for Personal Use: The injustice of a mass-incarceration system that is an oubliette for people who've been deemed disposable will continue.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Osler's Razor: The stone is rolled away



I remember my father and his own faith.  It was a faith that believed in the metaphors of the stories read and told by Christians.  It was the belief that those stories represented ways to cope with the chafe and pain that may come from time to time. 

It was also a belief that love was a chain that connected the lives of the shattered to the lives of the complete and they should not be broken.  It's been many years since I thought about finding comfort in these words, but sometimes the thud of truth can hit hard.

This piece by Mark Osler has that truth for me. 

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

A 'Draconian' System Where the Innocent Plead Guilty

 Plea Bargaining - Where the Sausage is Made


A 'Draconian' System Where the Innocent Plead Guilty: The U.S. criminal justice system is broken and needs to be fixed is a message you rarely hear from a well-respected senior federal judge.

But that’s exactly what Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York detailed during a keynote address at the 11th Annual Harry Frank Guggenhei...

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Saturday, January 16, 2016

U.S. Pardon Attorney: Does It Even Matter?

 Thoughtful piece by P.S. Ruckman at Pardon Power.


 As President Obama goes on the hunt for a new U.S. Pardon Attorney (something he should have done at the beginning of his presidency -instead of simply retaining Ronald L. Rodgers, George W. Bush's appointee), many wonder what impact the abrupt resignation of DeborahLeff will have on the already lame clemency record of this administration.  more


Friday, January 15, 2016

Shock: U.S. Pardon Attorney to Resign

 Just saw this on P.S. Ruckman's Blog Pardon Power.
It's a shock 

Shock: U.S. Pardon Attorney to Resign

 The Associated Press reports that Deborah Leff, the U.S. Pardon Attorney, is resigning "at the end of the month after less than two years on the job."  more

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

OPA Calls for 16 Attorney Advisors

Great News - We hope it means Thousands of Commutations are coming as promised.
http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/39/a-20-year-maximum-for-prison-sentences/

Great piece by Mark Mauer.  Link below.


Tagged CrimePrisons






Tuesday, January 5, 2016

john knock a case of charging disparity


John is a 68 year old nonviolent marijuana offender who received two life terms plus twenty for a marijuana offense.  He is a first time offender.  John has been incarcerated for a few months short of 20 years,  He has petitioned President Obama for a Commutation of his sentence to time served.  

The incarceration of nonviolent marijuana offenders for life is a waste of  taxpayer money and is not compatible with civil liberties.  

Nonviolent marijuana offender who are serving sentences of life without parole and have served 10 years could receive commutations  without endangering the safety of any community they are returned to. 

Releasing these nonviolent marijuana offenders would save tens of millions of dollars and would help restore faith in the criminal justice system.  It is obvious that these are sentences that do not fit the crime.  

Most all of the nonviolent marijuana offenders who received these sentences were charged with conspiracy and elected to exercise their Sixth Amendment Right to trial.  This is how these sentences are given.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

This article in Vice by Justin Glawe is a story about a little known component of out Criminal Justice System.


The combination of being charged with conspiracy and going to trial results in Life without Parole for nonviolent marijuana offenders and all other nonviolent drug offenders.  This is what Life for Pot has found for the nonviolent marijuana offenders that we have spotlighted on our site.

How Drug Conspiracy Laws Put Regular People in Prison for Life

Vice - Justin Glawe

Saturday, June 27, 2015


There will be lots of consequences from the Supreme Court decision Johnson v. United States.  

Is it to hopeful to believe that one of them may be that Congress would craft legislation that is precise and without ambiguity.  

The enforcement, prosecution and sentencing has increasingly run amok and resulted in over incarceration and loss of citizens freedoms due to overcharging and overly broad interpretation of the law.  With the addition of mandatory minimums and the increased authority and power of prosecutors we have become a nation of prisoners when compared to the rest of the free world.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Life For Pot - Release Nonviolent Drug offenders

We're revising our web site to include current content and thoughts.  During the next few months it seems to us that advocates need to contact the President and the Justice Department to encourage them to grant Commutations at an accelerated rate.  

Inmates with mandatory minimums - Life without Parole - for nonviolent drug offenses need to have sentencing relief that they may not get through legislation. Congress should also not oppose the use of funds for the Pardon Attorney's Office.  These are critical actions that must be taken to restore fiscal responsibility and justice.  

Life without Parole for nonviolent drug offenses cannot be an accepted sentence for a nation that believes in mercy, compassion, and justice.



Monday, June 1, 2015

Koch Urges Obama Administration to Grant Clemency to Release Nonviolent Drug Offenders.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2015/06/01/charles-koch-president-obama-release-drug-offenders-clemency/28309233/http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2015/06/01/charles-koch-president-obama-release-drug-offenders-clemency/28309233/

Saturday, May 23, 2015

State Inmates

 Jeff Mizanskey received a commutation from Missouri Governor Nixon.  In Missouri, this means that he can now recieve parole from the Missouri Parole Board.  Let's hope they act with due speed.  Jeff Mizanskey has been on featured on the web site Life for Pot.  He is listed with some other nonviolent marijuana inmates who need commutations so they won't spent the rest of their lives in state prisons.



Monday, May 18, 2015

Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Blasts Process / Project



As we become more and more concerned about the success of Clemency Project 2014, I thought I'd share this video provided by PS Ruckman over at Pardon Power.

We are now into the 17th month after the launching of the promise of sentencing relief for the army of federal nonviolent citizens serving egregiously long sentences.  

Since I concern myself with those unfortunate offenders who  were charged with conspiracy for nonviolent marijuana offenses, hope rests with the discovery of mercy, compassion and justice within the Executive Branch.  

As I look at all nonviolent drug offenders with life sentences or defacto life - an obvious pattern begins to emerge.  These sentences are not given because of the nature of these offenders actions, but because of the prosecutors charging decisions.  It could not be a coincidence that these offenders were almost all charged with conspiracy - the easiest charge to prosecute with the slimmest amount of evidence and they all elected to exercise their 6th Amendment Right to Trial.

Had these two circumstances been part of their case, they would most certainly have been released long ago.



Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Life For Pot - Online

 Click the link on Life for Pot.  Darrell Hayden was granted a Commutation today by President Barack Obama. 

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Monday, March 16, 2015

16 Percent of Federal Prison Population to Obama: Set Us Free!

Piece from PS Ruckman's Blog - Pardon Power

 16 Percent of Federal Prison Population to Obama: Set Us Free!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Home

 New Web Site for Nonviolent Inmates Serving Sentences of Life without Parole for Marijuana


Sunday, October 19, 2014

CAN-DO Home

 This is a very good site for clemency information.
Can-Do Justice through Clemency
CAN-DO Home

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Letter to Congress and Thanksgiving Greeting



Life for Pot – Release Nonviolent Drug Offenders


BETH CURTIS 
100 HALE RD
ZANESVILLE, OH. 43701
PH. # 740 452 2867


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.  Exercising your right to trial assures an egregious sentence.

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 a waste of Federal dollars and an affront to justice.
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.

Sincerely,

Beth Curtis MSW
Life for Pot



WAITING FOR THANKSGIVING

JAMESTOWN COLONISTS BROUGHT HEMP TO VIRGINIA IN 1621 GOVERNOR WILLIAM BRADORD ORGANIZED THE 1ST THANKSGIVING IN 1621

FAMILIES OF PRISONERS OF WAR ON DRUGS WILL MISS THEIR LOVED ONES AT THE TABLE.
Nonviolent marijuana offenders with no violent priors are serving sentences of Life without Parole for marijuana only offenses.  They are missed by family and friends who do not understand the lack of redemption, mercy and forgiveness.  This travesty can be corrected

1.  Remove marijuana from the Controlled Substance Act Schedule
2.  End mandatory minimums that make this harsh sentencing possible for those who exercise
     Their Sixth Amendment Right to Trial
3.  Pass retroactive legislation for sentencing relief for non-violent drug offenders.

SEND THESE NONVIOLENT MARIJUANA OFFENDERS
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS!