Given life term, drug offender hopes for clemency

[NaturalHigh]

GREENVILLE, Ill. — From the very start, Scott Walker refused to believe he’d die in prison.

Arrested and jailed at 25, then sent to prison two years later, Walker couldn’t imagine spending his life behind bars for dealing drugs. But the years passed, his appeals failed and nothing changed.

Now, after 17½ years, Walker may have his best shot at freedom. The Obama administration — responding to mounting concerns about decades of harsh penalties and overcrowded prisons — recently announced it will consider clemency for possibly thousands of non-violent federal inmates, most of them drug offenders.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/usworld/given-life-term-drug-offender-hopes-for-clemency/article_d8c3a558-f627-56e8-8af5-72686c13e863.html

[Phlem]

1. yeps

cause that's worse than killing a few thousand Americans and Iraq's in a made up war.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, NaturalHigh.

[NaturalHigh]

3. Thanks for the kick.

I hope that someday the drug war will stop causing casualties.

[Uncle Joe]

5. I believe at some point the unjust, tragic follies of the drug war will end, but it does

seem excruciatingly slow.

I imagine this is particularly true if you have been sitting in prison for 17 years.

[conservaphobe]

4. No one should have to spend that much time in prison for nonviolent offenses. nt

[NaturalHigh]

6. I agree completely.

This guy really wasn't even a big deal in the drug ring, just a low-level dealer and user. What possible good does it do to lock him up for life?

Of course, here in my home state, people still get locked up for marijuana possession. Not dealing - possession.