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Drug War Prisoners: Rockefeller Law Victim Turned Activist Veronica Flournoy Dead at 39

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #499)
Drug War Issues

Former New York Rockefeller drug law victim turned reformer Veronica Flournoy died last week of lung cancer in a Florida hospice. Flournoy, 39, a heavy drug user in her younger years, was snagged in an undercover drug operation and sentenced to eight years to life under New York's draconian Rockefeller laws.

Veronica Flournoy, with NY Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, daughters Candace and Keeshana and mother Eileen (courtesy kunstler.org)
Flournoy served her minimum sentence, then collected her two young children and tried to begin life anew with her family. But the lung cancer, which appeared while she was in prison and which prison doctors told her not to worry about, left her with little time.

Prison opened Flournoy's eyes to the injustice of the drug war, and she never forgot her fellow prisoners. Flournoy participated in rallies designed to pressure polticians to undo the Rockefeller laws and even consented to using her terminal illness in a move to heighten the pressure. She appeared in a February public service announcement sponsored by the William Moses Kunstler Fund aimed at Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) and other state politicians who have been slow to act on vows to reform the state's harsh drug laws.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

mlang52 (not verified)

If this is the standard of medical care in prisons, one could say that there will occaisionally be life sentences for people with "only minimal sentences" to serve! I guess, maybe, that is why the guy was a prison doctor?!

I think the constituion could be applied here. The lady did not get her right to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness,(AFTER HER MINIMAL SENTENCE), because of a bad (uncaring) doctor! Can you say malpractice?

Fri, 08/24/2007 - 12:44pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

I trust the physician that said 'don't worry about cancer' has had his/her medical license suspended pending capital crimes?

What do you expect when murderers... like cunt judge Retchin... are allowed to sentence paraplegics, that require around the clock health care and a respirator to live through the night, to prison with none of the above!

Magbie slowly drowned to death... in his state sponsored & mandated cell... on his own saliva... his 2nd night in prison... just as forewarned... even after repeated pleas for help and a trip to the prison hospital the night before!

Even the victims prosecutor/accuser was adamantly opposed to incarceration fearing for the accused life. But cunt judge retchins hate and arrogance ruled the court... and another innocent man is killed by the religious state of stupidity!

Why did cunt judge retchin sentence this 95% disabled black man with no use of his hands or feet to his death? Because he defied her by saying it doesn't matter what you do to me he wouldn''t stop smoking marijuana because it helped him... he was occasionally happy... so she thought "oh yeah... watch this you poor black disabled bastard... this will teach you to fuck with my stupidity!

Hope retchin reaps what she sowed... a slow painful death... apparently neccessary... the murderous bitch is still on the bench!

Beware of those that kill with the cross!

Billy B Blunt
Tacoma, Wa

Fri, 08/24/2007 - 2:08pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

Cancer is nothing to worry about. Hurricanes are nothing to worry about. Oh, wait. I live in Florida. Never mind.

Mon, 08/27/2007 - 11:29pm Permalink

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