The Drug War Chronicle reports that pressure is building for Texas Gov. Rick Perry to commute the sentence of Tyrone Brown, who was sentenced to life in prison for smoking pot. In 1990, when he was 17, Brown took part in a $2 robbery in which the victim was not physically injured, a crime for which he received 10 years of probation. A few weeks later, he tested positive for marijuana, and the judge not only revoked his probation but inexplicably resentenced him to a life term. Now, after local and national media attention triggered by the November Coalition, Perry has been urged to commute Brown's sentence not only by outraged citizens but by Dallas District Attorney Bill Hill, Sheriff Lupe Valdez, and even the sentencing judge, Keith Dean, who is no longer in office. In addition to the sheer insanity of the sentence, there's a racial angle (which proved important in Perry's decision to release the Tulia residents nabbed for allegedly selling cocaine to discredited undercover cop Tom Coleman): The Dallas Morning News contrasted Dean's ridiculously harsh treatment of Brown, a poor black teenager, with the lenience he showed a wealthy white guy, John Alexander Wood, who received a 10-year suspended sentence for killing a prostitute. When Wood repeatedly tested positive for cocaine, Dean did not send him to jail, let alone give him a life sentence. Instead he arranged things so Wood didn't have to take drug tests anymore. Shows Americas Justice system really works 17 year old black man get's life for robbing $2 and smoking a joint,and a wealthy white man kills a prostitute and test positively for coke and they arrange it for him not to have drug test anymore.Wtf seriously that's one of the biggest injustices I've ever heard. At least they let him out after 15 years http://www.november.org/thewall/cases/brown-ty/brown-ty.html
Money is the root... The white guy had more cash flow and higer connections so he got off easier... Just look at OJ,I know me being black I'm not supposed to admit this .. But he did that shit...( Clam Watches back hoping black community does'nt come get him)
I know this I just think this is a horible injustice he lost 16 years of his life it would have been his whole life if nobody pettioned. I don't know it just makes you think.
man thats an outrage! ol' dude should def spend some time away for the robbery tho. i dont care if it was 5 cents, a thief is a thief and i hate them. he should pay the price for that but life for blazin a joint? thats rediculous. give the guy a few months for the robbery and then let him be, damn!
That's what I thought it was from too But that sucks dude, and yea money does a lot of magical things for ya. And as for the OJ reference, if you want to write a book about "If I killed her, this is how I would do it" you're fucking guilty, he was guilty and he should rot in jail forever. But his money bought his way out. Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but it sure as hell can afford the best lawyer. I know for a fact he's not the only person rotting away in jail that doesn't deserve to be there.
this bullshit is called racism. America (which consideres its self the best place on earth) was founded on racism and the killing of native people.