I wrote about the Will Foster case in the Chronicle last week. Here's a brief summary: Foster had a small medical marijuana garden in Tulsa that was raided in 2005. Two years later, he was sentenced to an insane 93 YEARS in prison. Only after a publicity campaign in which DRCNet played a vital role was he resentenced to merely 20 years, and after being twice denied parole, he was paroled to California.

Although Oklahoma thought Foster should be on parole until 2011, California decided he didn't need any more state supervision and released him from parole after three years. That wasn't punitive enough for Oklahoma. Although Foster had left the Bible Belt state behind with no intention of ever returning, Oklahoma parole officials issued a parole violation warrant for his extradition to serve out the remainder of his sentence. When Foster had to show ID in a police encounter, the warrant popped up, and he was jailed. Desperate, Foster filed a writ of habeas corpus and won! A California judge ruled the warrant invalid, and Foster was a free man again.

But not for long. It's thirst for vengeance still unslaked, the state of Oklahoma issued yet another parole violation warrant for Foster's extradition because he refused to agree to an extension of his parole to 2015--four years past the original Oklahoma parole date. Then he got raided in California, thanks to bad information from an informant with an axe to grind. Foster had a legal medical marijuana grow, but it took a hard-headed Sonoma County prosecutor more than a year to drop charges, and Foster has been jailed the whole time.

Now that the charges have been dropped, Foster still isn't free because Oklahoma still wants him back. Extradition warrants have been signed by the governors of both states, and he was days away from being extradited in shackles when he filed a new habeas writ this week. Filing the writ will stop him from being sent back to Oklahoma, but it also means he's stuck in jail for the foreseeable future. The writ is a legal strategy; his real best hope is to get one of those governors to rescind the extradition order.

You can help. Click on this link to find out how to write the governors. I think a campaign of letters to the editor of Oklahoma papers might help, too. Those letters might ask why Oklahoma wants to continue to spend valuable tax dollars to persecute a harmless man whose only crime was to try to get some relief for his ailments--and who has no intention of ever returning there.

...So, anyway, I went to see Will at the Sonoma County Jail Saturday night. But I didn't get in. The steel-toes in my footwear set off the metal detector, and I quickly found out such apparel was a security risk. Who knew? I'll go back later this week. I guess I'll wear sandals.

In the meantime, there are letters waiting to be written. Keyboard commandos, saddle up!

Will Foster became a poster child for the mindless cruelties of the drug war more than a decade ago.

In April, two Thai citizens, Sureeya Wuttisat, 45, and Asan Tong, 47, were sentenced to death in Malaysia after being convicted of trafficking about 40 pounds of marijuana.

US Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the gap in sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses must go.

From the 1970s until 2000, anyone caught possessing, distributing, or producing heroin in Louisiana was eligible for a prison sentence of life without parole.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) Monday introduced a bill that would dramatically increase prison sentences for marijuana trafficking offenses if the pot in question had THC levels over 15%.

The Congressional Black Caucus
 Community Re-Investment Taskforce and the
Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice
at Harvard Law School
invite you to attend

"Rethinking Federal Sentencing Policy"
25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Reform Act
 
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
  U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Ways and Means
1100 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C.

Program

Welcome and Opening Remarks by
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)
 Rep. Danny Davis (IL)
Rep. Charles Rangel (NY)
 
Welcome and Introduction of Attorney General by
Rep. John Conyers (MI)
 
Remarks by
Eric Holder, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
 
Introduction of Justice Breyer
Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. Executive Director, 
Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice,
Harvard Law School
 
Hon. Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice
Supreme Court of the United States
 
Kate Stith, Acting Dean
Yale Law School
 
Mandatory Minimums
 
Panel One: Rep Maxine Waters (CA)
History of Mandatory Minimums
 
Nancy Gertner, Judge, U.S. District Court for the
District of Massachusetts
Hon. J. Spencer Letts, Judge, U.S. District Court,
Central District of California
Eric Sterling, President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
 
Panel Two: Rep. Bobby Scott (VA)
The Need for Repeal, Including Legislative Update
 
A.J. Kramer, Federal Defender, Federal Public Defender of the
District of Columbia
Julie Stewart, President, Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Marc Mauer, Executive Director, The Sentencing Project
Margaret Love, Former Pardon Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice
 
Disparity Between Crack and Powder Cocaine
 
Panel Three: Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX)
 
Hon. Reggie B. Walton, Judge, U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia
Hon. William Sessions, Vice Chairman, U.S. Sentencing Commission
Bruce Nicholson, Legislative Counsel, American Bar Association
David Kirby, Former United States Attorney for the
District of Vermont
 
Good Time, Community Corrections and Reentry
 
 Panel Four: Rep. Danny K. Davis (IL)
Hon. Ann Aiken, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court of the
District of Oregon
Loretta S. Martin, Chief Probation Officer for the Central
District of California
Harley G. Lappin, Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons
            Jane Browning, Executive Director, International Community Corrections Association
Kristen Mamer, Director Public Affairs, FedCure
Isaac Fulwood, Jr., Chairman, U.S. Parole Commission (Invited)
 

Contact: Bernard Moore, PhD, Senior Policy Fellow
Office of Congressman Danny K. Davis
202-360-7551
Bernard.moore@mail.house.gov

Last month the "Crack the Disparity" Coalition delivered petitions signed by tens of thousands of people, calling for an end to the draconian US crack sentencing laws, to the offices of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Pat Leahy (D-VT), respective chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. This short video on ColorOfChange.org shows one of the deliveries, and features comments from Karen Garrison, whose two sons were unjustly caught up in these laws; and from Nkechi Taifa, who heads up justice reform efforts at the Open Society Policy Center.

The ColorOfChange.org page devoted to this petition also features audio from the press conference, including former Major League baseball star Willie Mays Aikens, who served 14 years in federal prison after an untreated cocaine addiction drew him into the federal system with crack charges.

According to a newly released poll, more than one-quarter of the population believes that incarcer

A federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced Morro Bay medical marijuana dispensary operator Charles Lynch to a year and a day in federal prison

California's $24 billion budget deficit and the steep cuts proposed by Gov.

The Canadian House of Commons today passed the Conservative government of Prime Minister Steven Harper' C-15 crime bill, which will institute mandatory minimum sentencing for some marijuana and other drug offenses. The vote, in which after dilly-dallying for days, the opposition Liberals joined in, came despite hearings in which no witnesses favored such a tough on crime approach north of the border.

It's not a done deal yet. The bill must still be approved by the Canadian Senate, which issued a report several years ago calling for the government to head in the opposite directoin. But the Senate, which is appointed, is not known for bucking the government and the House of Commons.

That the Liberals buckled for fear of being "soft on crime" and supported the Conservatives in this giant step backward is disappointing but not surprising. Oh, Canada! Once we looked to you for a progressive example on drug policy.

I will be writing about all this for the Chronicle later this week, as well as focusing on our other border with a feature article on the Obama administration's new initiative to thwart the Mexican so-called drug cartels.

The losers in New York state's effort to reform its draconian Rockefeller drug laws, mainly district attorneys and Republican legislators, made a last-ditch effort this week to scuttle part of the

Former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, a rock-ribbed conservative who made his national name as an opponent of illegal immigration and "open borders,"

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Congressional Black Caucus Justice and Civil Rights Taskforce and Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School presents Rethinking Federal Sentencing Policy: 25th Annive

The Mexican Senate Tuesday approved a bill that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs in a bid to undercut Mexican drug trafficking organizations and free police to go after

In a break with the Bush administration, Justice Department officials called Wednesday for the first time for Congress to pass legislation that would undo the vast disparities in sentences for thos

Good news from Washington, D.C.:

Justice Department officials this morning endorsed for the first time proposed legislation that would eliminate vast sentencing disparities for possession of powdered versus rock cocaine, an inequality that civil rights groups say has disproportionately affected poor and minority defendants.

Newly appointed Criminal Division chief Lanny A. Breuer told a Senate Judiciary Committee panel this morning that the Obama administration would support bills to equalize punishment for offenders accused of possessing the drug in either form, fulfilling one of the president's campaign pledges.

Breuer explicitly called on Congress to act this term to "completely eliminate" the sentencing disparity. [Washington Post]

The cocaine sentencing disparity has been a festering indefensible abomination for decades, and now that we're finally on track to fix this mess once and for all, I don't hear anyone complaining. It's great that the new administration is following through on their promises to support sentencing reform, but it's also just appalling to think that it's taken this long to get any momentum going towards fixing this notorious injustice. There was never anything to be afraid of.

Fixing dumb laws is the duty of the Congress and they'd be hard pressed to find a dumber one than this. Don't make this more complicated than it has to be. Just fix it already.

TAKE ACTION

     Today, be one of thousands of people across the country to phone your members of Congress to call for an end to the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. Your calls will make an important difference.
 
     This National Call-In Day is part of Crack the Disparity National Month of Advocacy, a month-long coordinated push to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.
 
     The current law:

• overstates the relative danger of crack cocaine compared to powder cocaine;
• contributes to the growth of our prison population, increasing the financial burden on taxpayers;
• disproportionately affects African Americans; and
• uses limited federal resources on low-level street dealers rather than on the major drug traffickers.

      Twenty-three years of a failed policy is long enough!  It's time to end this unjust and disproportionate sentencing policy. To participate call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard right now at 202.224.3121, and ask to speak to your representatives in the Senate and House. Urge them to support and co-sponsor H.R. 265, the Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act in the House and legislation in the Senate that eliminates the 100 to 1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine.

    You should place three calls because you have one representative and two senators.
 
     Use this link to help you with your calls to Congress.

Click here for talking points and script

Dear Friends,

On Thursday, April 23, thousands of people across the country will phone their members of Congress to call for an end to the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. We hope that you will mark your calendar and join us. Your calls will make an important difference.

The National Call-In Day is part of Crack the Disparity National Month of Advocacy, a month-long coordinated push to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.

The current law:

• overstates the relative danger of crack cocaine compared to powder cocaine;
• contributes to the growth of our prison population, increasing the financial burden on taxpayers;
• disproportionately affects African Americans; and
• uses limited federal resources on low-level street dealers rather than on the major drug traffickers.

Twenty-three years of a failed policy is long enough! It's time to end this unjust and disproportionate sentencing policy. To participate, mark your calendar for April 23, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121, and ask to speak to your representatives in the Senate and House. Urge them to support and co-sponsor H.R. 265, the Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act in the House and legislation in the Senate that eliminates the 100 to 1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine.

You should place three calls because you have one representative and two senators.

Use this link (talking points and script) to help you with your calls to Congress: http://sentencingproject.org/AdvocacyMaterialDetails.aspx?AdvocacyMateri...

- The Sentencing Project