'System Uses Prisons to Throw People Away': Man Sentenced to 1,823 Years in Prison to be Released
Lawrence Stephens, 38, thought he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison after a Virginia judge sentenced him to 1,823 years in prison for a 2001 home invasion and robbery. Stephens received the lifeline of a lifetime when Hampton, Virginia, civil rights activists caught wind of his case.
On Nov. 13, 2001, a then-18-year-old Stephens was homeless, working two jobs, with a baby on the way, according to Rebecca Winn, the Hampton, Virginia, NAACP Legal Redress and Criminal Justice chairperson. She says while working at his restaurant job at the time, Stephens and another Black employee were talked into breaking into a house and committing a robbery. An older white co-worker masterminded the robbery but never went inside the home.
“They ended up taking off the top of my head, $500 and maybe a gun,” Winn said.
There were five co-defendants in all, but the white participants in the robbery received standard sentences averaging 10 to 13 years as the Black co-defendants received harsher sentences. Darnell Nolan, who was 17 years old at the time received a 35-year prison sentence and Stephens received 1,823 years.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/system-uses-prisons-throw-people-190000505.html
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