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Kemba
Smith
Case
Featured
on
Nightline
10/1/99
Last night's episode of the
ABC news magazine Nightline featured the case of Kemba Smith, a young African
American woman who at the age of 24 was sentenced to 24 1/2 years in prison
for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. Kemba, who has been featured
in two cover articles in Emerge, a news magazine focused on the African
American community, was peripherally involved in a cocaine ring run by
her boyfriend, Peter Hall. Hall subjected Kemba to physical abuse,
and threatened to use violence against her and her parents if she didn't
cooperate. Hall was subsequently murdered, probably in a drug trade-related
dispute, and government prosecutors in Virginia charged her with the full
quantity of drugs sold by Hall's entire operation since it first formed,
several years before they met.
Nightline's report featured
parents Gus and Odessa Smith, Julie Stewart of Families Against Mandatory
Minimums, and an interview with Kemba Smith herself, as well as the head
prosecutor for the Virginia region and Kemba's attorney from the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund. Visit Nightline's web site at http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/Nightline/nl990930.html
to read more about the Nightline report. To order a transcript, call
1-800-CALL-ABC or order online at http://www.ABCNewsstore.com.
\
Please write to Nightline
at [email protected] and thank them for covering this important case and
issue, and visit http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8899/index2.html
to find out how to join the campaign for a Presidential pardon for Kemba
Smith. Visit the following links for further background:
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The Kemba Smith Justice Page,
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8899/
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FAMM Fact Sheet on Kemba Smith,
http://www.famm.org/kemba2.html
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1997 "Free Kemba" Protest at
the US Capitol, http://www.drcnet.org/wol/011.html#kemba
-- END --
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Issue #110, 10/1/99
Alert: DEA Sabotaging Legal Hemp Industry | Kemba Smith Case Featured on Nightline | DC Appropriations Subcommittee Holds Hearings in Response to Veto | Calendar Update
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