The Louisiana Supreme Court reviewed the appeal of a war veteran sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to sell 0.69 grams of marijuana and subsequently released him. War veterans are national heroes. While ordinary people continue their lives, these men and women have sacrificed everything important to them, including their lives and families, to serve their country.
Regrettably, most of those who have survived war and combat exposure are left with severe, irreparable damage to their physical and mental health.
Additionally, they are grossly underpaid for their invaluable service, and many have spent years struggling to regain stability, often with inadequate or limited care.
According to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates, “40,056 veterans are homeless on any given night.” The 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicates that one in fifteen veterans suffers from a substance use disorder.
Furthermore, approximately 20 to 30 percent of war veterans experience PTSD, sometimes alongside drug and alcohol issues. The story of one veteran serves as a poignant reminder to revisit the treatment of these heroes and ensure they receive the welfare they rightfully deserve.
In 2008, U.S. military veteran Derek Harris was arrested in Louisiana for attempting to sell 0.69 grams of marijuana to a law enforcement officer for $30. He was convicted and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison. Four years later, in 2012, his sentence was escalated to life imprisonment under the Habitual Offender Law, which imposes harsher penalties on individuals with prior convictions, often resulting in life sentences.
Despite the non-violent nature of his previous offenses, which occurred long before the marijuana charge, Harris had a criminal history. He was arrested for selling cocaine in 1991 and subsequently convicted of simple robbery twice over the next two years. He also served time for simple burglary in 1997 and theft under $500 in 2005. During resentencing, the judge determined that Harris's repeated petty crimes warranted a life sentence.
At a later court hearing, Harris contested the adequacy of his legal representation, leading to the reopening of his case. The Louisiana Supreme Court acknowledged that he received "ineffective assistance of counsel at sentencing on post-conviction review."
Harris contended that his defense attorney failed to challenge the life sentence or defend him as he was sentenced to life for possessing less than a gram of marijuana. His new attorney, Cormac Boyle, stated that the prosecutors in Vermilion Parish agreed to release Harris, acknowledging that he had already served sufficient time.
Louisiana Supreme Court Justice, John Weimer wrote in his legal opinion that the trial judge of Harris had confirmed that he did not fit the description of a drug kingpin or a drug dealer, and this was why he didn’t receive a maximum 30-year sentence at his first trial.
He wrote that his prior offenses “were nonviolent and related to his untreated dependency on drugs.” After his exit from Desert Storm, a U.S. military operation that oversaw Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Harris returned to the U.S. and developed a drug problem.
His attorney is now coordinating with the Louisiana Department of Corrections to release him as soon as possible. It is expected that Harris will move to Kentucky to be close to his family and to stay with his brother, Antoine.
This case triggered debate surrounding the Habitual Offender Law and the treatment of war veterans across the country, and the HOL has been harshly accused of prejudice against people of color.
The HOL works with the so-called “3 Strikes, You’re Out” rule, imposing a mandatory life sentence on criminals who have committed certain crimes repeatedly.
The law was enacted in 1994, and over the years, many have accused it of dragging the American judicial back several centuries.
It has been claimed that it leads to overpopulation in the prisons, disproportional sentences, and racial prejudice against minorities and people of color.
Cormac Boyle, of The Promise of Justice Initiative -- a New Orleans-based NGO that helps people who have become victims of the complexities of the US criminal justice system, said that the details of the case of his client were not unusual, and concluded:
“It is certainly time for Louisiana to rethink how it uses the habitual offender law. While in theory, such a law may be fine, in practice it perpetuates and exposes some of the worst aspects of the criminal justice system.”
He also added that the release was just the first step in helping Harris start a new life. During his time in prison, he worked in the prison’s hospital, but he will leave the jail in need of a job, medications, and other basic necessities.
He stated:
“Supporting Derek did not end with overturning his egregious life sentence and it did not end the day he walked out of Angola. Righting the harms done to a person through incarceration includes supporting their health, housing, and adjustment to their long-deserved freedom we need all the help we can get.”
In 1997, Fair Wayne Bryant, a 62-year-old African-American man, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Louisiana Supreme Court for the theft of hedge clippers. His criminal record included minor offenses such as possession of stolen goods, check forgery, and breaking into an unoccupied building. After serving 23 years, his sentence review appeal was denied by the Supreme Court in a decision that faced widespread criticism. The panel's sole African-American and female judge was the only one to vote in favor of overturning the sentence.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson later said that “the sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed”, and wrote:
“Mr. Bryant has already spent nearly 23 years in prison and is now over 60 years old. If he lives another 20 years, Louisiana taxpayers will have paid almost one million dollars to punish Mr. Bryant for his failed effort to steal a set of hedge clippers.”
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