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.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
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, April 18, 2016
Heritage on the Apocalyptic Pardon Horseman
A very interesting piece by P.S. Ruckman on the
Pardon Power Blog. Read all of it.
Pardon Power Blog. Read all of it.
Friday, April 15, 2016
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.
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Friday, March 4, 2016
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, February 27, 2016
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Clemency Is Not Enough: Thousands Still Imprisoned For Nonviolent Marijuana Crimes
Clemency Is Not Enough: Thousands Still Imprisoned For Nonviolent Marijuana Crimes: About 44 percent of federal marijuana inmates had no or very minimal criminal histories prior to their conviction, and over a third are over the age of 40.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
John Knock
John Knock
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
Sunday, January 10, 2016
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.
By Marc Mauer
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.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Monday, December 7, 2015
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, September 19, 2015
life for pot release nonviolent drug offenders
Please Visit our Site Life for Pot
Release Nonviolent Drug Offenders
life for pot release nonviolent drug offenders
Release Nonviolent Drug Offenders
life for pot release nonviolent drug offenders
Friday, September 18, 2015
If Cuba releases 3,522 for the visit of the Pope - the US must release 28,296 to show comparable Compassion Mercy and Justice
http://sfbayview.com/2015/09/cuba-to-release-3522-prisoners-on-the-eve-of-pope-francis-visit-why-cant-obama-do-the-same/
http://sfbayview.com/2015/09/cuba-to-release-3522-prisoners-on-the-eve-of-pope-francis-visit-why-cant-obama-do-the-same/
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.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
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.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
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.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Obama's 64 Pardons and 43 Commutations in Context
This useful chart is from PS Ruckman at his Pardon Power blog
Obama's 64 Pardons and 43 Commutations in Context
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
This is what freedom looks like
Take a Look at The Clemency Report and See the Great Stories about Sentencing Relief
This is what freedom looks like
Thursday, March 19, 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!
16 Percent of Federal Prison Population to Obama: Set Us Free!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
This is John Knock my brother. He is a wonderful man with wit and humor. We miss him in our daily lives and are asking that President Obama grant him Clemency as a first time marijuana offender who received a sentence of Life without Parole for marijuana.
https://www.change.org/p/grant-clemency-to-john-knock-life-in-prison-for-marijuana
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Life in Prison for Pot? As Laws Ease, Some Remain Behind Bars
We Need Clemency for Nonviolent Drug Offenders
Life in Prison for Pot? As Laws Ease, Some Remain Behind Bars
Life in Prison for Pot? As Laws Ease, Some Remain Behind Bars
Monday, November 10, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
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
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
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