A man who was sentenced to life in prison for selling $30 of marijuana will be freed

[babylonsister]

A man who was sentenced to life in prison for selling $30 of marijuana will be freed
By Kay Jones and Scottie Andrew, CNN
Updated 12:51 AM ET, Sat August 8, 2020


(CNN)A military veteran serving a life sentence for selling less than $30 worth of marijuana will soon be released from prison, his attorney said.

Derek Harris, who was arrested in 2008 in Louisiana for selling an officer .69 grams of marijuana, was recently resentenced to time served. He's already served nine years in prison.

Initially, Harris was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to the Louisiana Supreme Court. He was resentenced in 2012 to life in prison under the Habitual Offender Law, which allows judges to impose stricter sentences on someone who's been charged before.

The Louisiana Supreme Court agreed with Harris' argument claiming he had "ineffective assistance of counsel at sentencing on post-conviction review." The matter was sent back to the trial court for an evidentiary writ.
The District Attorney's office agreed that Harris "received ineffective assistance at sentencing and was entitled to a lesser sentence," Boyle said in a statement.
more...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/08/us/man-freed-life-sentence-marijuana-trnd/index.html

[soothsayer]

1. Now do hedgeclipper guy

I will never understand that one

[babylonsister]

4. He was on his 4th strike, though I agree;

way too severe.

[LonePirate]

2. Why aren't Dem governors (like Edwards in LA) commuting these types of sentences?

[localroger]

3. Edwards is a bit preoccupied right now

what with the whole coronavirus thing, which already has everyone hating on him. He is term-limited and once he no longer needs to work with the solid-R legislature to get anything done he might move on a few politically explosive things like this, but right now he would just be carpetbombing his own effectiveness at a lot of other important stuff.

Remember, despite that D next to our governor's name, this is a solidly blood-red state. We have only the Republicans' abject stupidity in the campaign to thank for the fact that JBE was able to pull it through even once, much less twice.

[JonLP24]

5. I don't see how this would be politically explosive

I don't think even "Tough on crime" conservatives want life sentences for cannabis. Meanwhile Trump is letting people who sold this country out to Russia off the hook.

I'm glad he is free though.

[localroger]

6. You must not live around here

There are a lot of state reps from rural districts who most definitely would say you are a softie lib and not worth working with because you're against the death penalty for cannabis possession. Especially if you're black. Even the mandatory mask order and closing all the bars have been political dynamite, despite having solid numbrs on which to base his decisions. Much of this state just knows what it knows whether it's right or not, and the governor has to work with that.