First time drug offender asks Obama to commute her 27 year sentence

Dear Mr. President,


Today is President’s Day. As the President of the United States, you have the unique and absolute power to commute the sentence of any federal prisoner. That means you could send me home today, and that is what I am asking you to do.

From everything I have observed, you are a compassionate and just man. I pray that if you learn of the story behind my sentence, you will be moved to exercise your clemency power to give me a second chance.

I am a mother and grandmother serving my 17th year of a 27-year federal prison sentence for a first time, nonviolent crack cocaine offense. I never used or sold drugs, but I was convicted under conspiracy laws for participating in a drug organization by running errands and wiring money. Had I been convicted of a powder cocaine offense, I would be home with my three daughters and two grandchildren by now. I have had a lot of time to think about where I went wrong, and I genuinely take full responsibility for my actions. But I hope you will see that over 16 years in prison is enough time for me to pay my debt to society.

When I was 21 years old, I found myself in a horridly abusive relationship with a man in Portland, Oregon, who intimidated, cursed, slapped, punched and kicked me. I had my first child, Kasaundra, when I was 16 years old, and this man was the father to my second child, Ayesha. Even though my self-esteem at this point in my life was virtually nonexistent, in my heart I knew that this life wasn’t what I wanted for myself or — most importantly — for my children.

The only option I could see was to go live with my cousin, Ahad, in Omaha, Nebraska. Ahad set me up with a safe place to live, and most importantly, it was hundreds of miles away from my violent ex-boyfriend. Ahad recently wrote a letter in support of my commutation petition. In it, he accurately summed up the situation:

Her boyfriend was a gang member and his main goal in life was to be the best gang member he could be. He beat Hamedah all the time and threatened to kill her. She could not hide from him in Portland – he knew where everybody lived. He drank a lot and used drugs. It was not a good environment for Hamedah to raise her kids in, and it wasn’t safe for Hamedah either. So she came to me in Omaha.

The thing is, Ahad was dealing crack cocaine. Although I never used drugs myself, it wasn’t long before he asked me to run various errands and to transfer some money. He never held a gun to my head; I knew what I was doing, and I regret my poor decisions during this period of my life more than anything else. At the time, I felt out of options, and I believed that I needed to perform these tasks to show my gratitude for Ahad’s help in escaping my abusive relationship.

After less than two years, I decided to move back to my hometown in order to get away from the drug operation. I wanted my girls to grow up with their mother earning an honest living and leading by example. I enrolled in a welfare-to-work program and was getting back on my feet.

But soon after I returned home, I was arrested, indicted and convicted of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine from my time in Omaha with Ahad. I was sentenced to life in prison (later reduced to 27 years), based on the total quantity of drugs involved in the operation. I gave birth to Kamyra, my youngest child, in prison. That was one of the hardest experiences of my life.

During my more than 16 years of incarceration, I have taken long, hard looks at myself. I’ve done everything in my power to redeem myself and to demonstrate through deeds that upon release, I will be a community asset, not a community liability.

If you commute my sentence, I could have 10 years back on my life. Ten more years to make up for being so far apart from my daughters. Ten more years to realize my dream of starting a nonprofit dedicated to providing community services for the children of incarcerated parents. Ten more years to make a real, positive difference in the world.

I hope you will give me that chance. You have said you believe the crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity should be eliminated. I know Congress is considering legislation to equalize the federal sentences. You should understand, however, that none of the legislation being considered would apply retroactively to me.

As much as I am cheering — even from behind prison bars — for a reform in the federal laws, I don’t want to fall through the cracks. I still have a lot of living, mothering and giving to do.

I would not be writing to you today unless I had no other option. I have appealed my case to the highest courts in the land, and you, and you alone, Mr. President, can send me home by exercising your executive clemency power to commute my sentence.


Sincerely,
Hamedah Hasan


Click here to ask President Obama to commute Hamedah’s sentence.

No charges for armed robbery attempt

Two arrested after attempted robbery of drug dealer, police say

Feb. 22, 2010 03:02 PM
The Arizona Republic

Two Mesa men were arrested after a drug dealer was held up at gunpoint in an attempted robbery Saturday afternoon, police said.

Police responded to a report of gunshots in a neighborhood in the 200 block of North Gilbert Road at 4:30 p.m.

Witnesses saw two men leaving the scene in a car, a vehicle matching the description was pulled over a few blocks away on a side street near University Drive between Gilbert Road and Stapley Drive.

The men in the car were identified as driver Jonathan Walker and passenger Rodney Nielson, ages unavailable, police said. Walker was later reported to be driving with a suspended license.

Walker and Nielson both admitted to attempting to buy drugs, police said.

Nielson told police he pulled a gun on the drug dealer and tried to take his drugs and money, police said. Nielson also admitted to firing one round into the ground.

Walker told the officer that there was a black bag filled with drug paraphernalia behind the passenger seat, police said. The officer found the bag and found several syringes, a spoon with burnt residue, and tin foil. Walker and Nielson admitted to using the items to inject heroin.

Walker was booked on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and driving under a suspended license. Nielson was arrested on charges of unlawful discharge of a firearm. Nielson was also being investigated on drug paraphernalia charges.

Drug dealer sentenced to 14 years

Meth dealer sentenced in Phoenix to 14 years


Dec. 17, 2009 04:19 PM
Associated Press


Authorities say a Mexican man has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for dealing drugs.

Prosecutors say 23-year-old Jesse Garza of Culiacan, Sinaloa, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. He was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Authorities say Garza arranged for a meth shipment from Phoenix to Indianapolis in July and August 2008 and provided a vehicle outfitted with a hidden compartment.

A police bust of the customers' stash house in Indiana led authorities to Garza and he was arrested in Phoenix on Sept. 16, 2008.

Woman serving 15 year sentence for conspiracy

Marsha Cunningham
#30862-077
15 Years - Crack Conspiracy

My name is Marsha Cunningham, and I am a nonviolent first time offender serving a 190-month sentence for possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and cocaine, aiding and abetting. I am presently at Marianna Federal Prison Camp in Marianna, Florida.


At the time of my arrest I was 26 years old. I was feeling as though I was just really beginning to live my life and accomplish certain things in life. I had a good job at a mortgage company in the foreclosure department, a nice condo, and two vehicles (one paid for). And to make my life complete, I met a man whom I fell in love with. After a while of dating, I let that man move in with me. He had the keys to my house, cars and heart.


On August 5, 1997, my entire world was turned upside down. I returned home from work that day to a house full of DEA agents. I was informed that my boyfriend had been arrested earlier during the day for drug trafficking. Then they arrested me because they found drugs in the storage compartment in the bottom of the stove.


I was taken to the FBI office and questioned about the drugs. I told them that I didn't know anything about the drugs and that they were not mine. The agent told me that he knew that the drugs were not mine and that my boyfriend told him that the drugs were his. However, the agent felt like I knew where my boyfriend got the drugs. But I didn't and still don't. From lack of knowledge and having a boyfriend that I could not keep my eyes on 24 hours a day, the government punished me with a sentence of 15 years in prison.


I was found guilty by association. What society needs to realize is that I could have been anyone: their sister, daughter, mother, aunt, or grandmother. Everyone makes mistakes, and nobody knows what all goes on inside their home when they share it with someone else and are gone from home eleven hours a day.


I agree that everyone should know everything about whom they love and sleep with. But the truth is we don't. We tell each other what we want them to know. I always thought that I was protected by the Constitution. I thought that because of due process of law, no one could be convicted if there was even just a shadow of a doubt.


In my case the government assumed that because my boyfriend was a drug dealer, lived with me, and drove my car that I knew what he was doing. Therefore, I am guilty of the same crime, possession with the intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base. But other than my boyfriend living with me, and driving my car, there was nothing to link me to his illegal activity. I was never seen by DEA agents with my boyfriend at any of the drug transactions, and there were no drug sales conducted out of my home. I never took any phone messages for him. The fact is he never conducted his illegal activities in my presence.


If I was suspected of assisting him in his illegal activity, why wasn't I put under the same surveillance as my boyfriend? Why was my name not on the search warrant to my apartment? Why was I not even mentioned in the search warrant? At my trial the DEA agent testified that they knew about me, but I was never put under surveillance because there was no need. They knew who the drug dealer was. And he is serving a 17-year prison sentence, two years more than I am! The criminal justice system thought that harsher sentences under the mandatory minimum sentencing would help win the war against drugs, but it isn't. All it is doing is locking up more people, and causing children to grow up without mothers and fathers. Society needs to realize that our legal system has failed. We all know that society cannot operate without law and order. But what all people need to realize is that the criminal justice system is a big business. Until society addresses the causes of why they are building more prisons and locking up more people, the legal system is going to continue to lock up even more people. First, the legal system has to admit that what has been tried has failed.


There are a lot of people incarcerated now with lengthy sentences and not because they were kingpins in big drug rings. Many were just friends, girlfriends, or wives of mid-level or street level drug dealers. Some people locked up were drug users and need to be in a drug rehab and not in prison for many years.


The criminal justice system is getting richer by incarcerating us for many years. It is costing the Bureau of Prison $25,000.00 a year to incarcerate me. And I am expected to be here 15 years. And who is paying for this? The taxpayers, and every new prison is costing middle class America plenty! America spends more money to incarcerate than they do to educate.


Right now the people who are least culpable of committing a crime are the ones doing the most time. Drug addicts are doing more time than their supplier instead of being in rehab to help them kick their addiction. Murderers, rapists, child abusers, and robbers are doing less time than first time nonviolent drug offenders. Because of mandatory minimum sentencing policies, people who have never been in any type of trouble are serving long prison sentences for non-violent crimes that they themselves did not actually commit.


It does not matter what your station in life is, or how much money you have acquired. Nobody is immune to crime. It can touch every social class. Drugs are a problem in America, but the mandatory, minimum sentences of ten years to life or 'three strikes you're out' are not the answer. How many billions of dollars of the taxpayers' money is America going to waste while the problem continues unaddressed and unsolved.




http://www.novembercoalition.org/thewall/cases/cunningham-m/cunningham-m.html

Former lawyer spent 12 years in prison for conspiracy

Diana Webb
#99871-011
12 1/2 Years
Meth Conspiracy

I was born in 1967 and was sentenced in 1996 to 12.5 years in federal prison for conspiracy to manufacture meth. I am a first-time non-violent drug offender. When released from prison I will be 40 years old, and then will be on supervised release for 5 more years.

Years ago I became friends with a man who I found out much later bought and sold methamphetamine. I met him through the tenants of a rental house he owned. He was charming and friendly. He asked to stay in my apartment while I was at work, and he was doing major refurbishment on his own house at night. Unknown to me, he used my washer and dryer for himself and his friends and generally trashed my house. After several weeks of this I tried to end this arrangement, but he refused to leave.

Then began a cycle of verbal abuse that soon escalated to violence. I had thought of myself as an aspiring young professional woman. Now I felt like dirt. Women who suffer abuse acquire a co-dependency and inner shame. They don't want to tell anybody. They long to be loved, and out of fear and guilt they stay with the abuser. For me, through a support group I found the strength to walk away.

My friendship with that man lasted only a few months, but the consequences were deeper than anything I could imagine. During the entire time, he was engaged in a drug-dealing ring.

A couple of years after I terminated our friendship, he and two others were indicted for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine. I was questioned by detectives and asked for my cooperation. I had received death threats and did not cooperate, so I was included in the indictment. He cooperated with the government and received a four-year sentence, reduced by one year for participation in a drug treatment program in prison. During that period I learned he had molested a child. That charge was swept under the rug, and no action was taken against him, since he had become a government informant.

Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines I was facing 293 months. A recommendation was made for a downward departure to only 12 1/2 years -- which was thought of as a lucky break -- for the abuse documented in medical and police reports and photographs. Since he was a government informant, no action was taken on the abuse cases. In the state of Missouri where I am from, the Crime Victims Compensation Fund pays medical bills related to abuse if criminally prosecuted by the State. Since none of the abuse cases were prosecuted, I had to pay the medical bills out of my own pocket. I lost my home through forfeiture. I lost my career as an attorney. I lost my job, my license, and 12 1/2 years of my life. I lost the opportunity to have children as I will be too old on release. I lost precious years with my family. I lost thousands of dollars in legal fees, and I lost happy times with my friends. When you come to prison, it is very lonely. Everyone forgets about you except your family and your closest friends.

Conspiracy was originally meant to catch the "king pin" at the top who frequently escaped prosecution by utilizing underlings. What has occurred is that conspiracy is now an all-encompassing charge under which the man at the top escapes punishment, since he has the most to tell in order to reduce his sentence. Others who may have played a minimal role receive 10 years to life, since they do not have information helpful to the government, or out of fear for their lives dare not reveal information they may have.

With the incentive to fabricate stories due to harsh mandatory sentences for conspiracy, the criminal justice system has torn apart families, pitting brother against brother when family members are indicted. It has ripped the fibers of the family unit which holds the country together. My father fought in three wars to defend this country. He would turn over in his grave if he could see what this country is doing to its citizens.