An honorably discharged black Gulf War veteran has been set free after serving 9 years of a life sentence without possibility of parole for selling $30 worth of marijuana to an undercover police officer. Derek Harris (photo) drew the stiff sentence for a minor drug infraction under Louisiana’s habitual offender law because of his prior offenses, none of which were violent.
A legal advocacy group appealed his case to the Louisiana state supreme court, which agreed the sentence was too harsh and remanded the case to a lower court for resentencing. The prosecutor and Harris’ lawyer struck a deal on time served. Harris, who apparently has had enough of Louisiana, said he will move to Kentucky to start his new life as a free man. Read story here.
Habitual offender laws, originally sold to the public as a way to get repeat violent offenders off the streets, have come under growing criticism because of prosecutorial overreach in cases like this.