Presidential Pardon: Pardon me Mr. President what about the rest?

It seems a member of the rap community is getting help from an unlikely source. President Bush has commuted the sentence of John Forte, the rapper and producer who co-wrote 2 songs on rap Super-group, Fugees (Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, & Pras), break-out album, The Score. Forte was arrested in 2000 at Newark International Airport after accepting a briefcase containing $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine. He was charged with possession with intent to distribute and conspiracy to distribute. Although, he had no prior criminal history, he was sentenced to a mandatory minimum 14 years and incarcerated at FCI Loretto, a low-security federal prison, in central Pennsylvania. Forte, who attended prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire on a violin scholarship was friends with Ben Taylor, son of Carly Simon. Taylor and Simon became huge advocates on Forte's behalf believing that he did not receive a fair trial. For years they fought for an appeal of the mandatory minimum drug laws that remove a judge's discretion in a case. As terms of his commutation John will be released from prison on December 22, leaving intact and in effect the five year term of supervised release with all it's conditions. John's story made me wonder how many other young men are sitting in jail due to mandatory sentencing so I did a little research and what I found was shocking!!! It seems that the justice system has stiffer penalties for drug offenders than they do for child sex offenders. According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice the average sentence in New York for a Level 3 Child Sex Offender is 4 months in prison and 5 years probation. A Study conducted between 1985-1993 revealed that 70% of those found guilty did not serve any jail time and even insinuated that the Prosecutor's office in some districts generally called the press on cases where an offender was going to receive serious prison time so that the general public believed that they were "tough" on those crimes. The Federal mandatory drug sentences for first-time drug offenders is as follows:

LSD- 1 gram (5 Years) 2-10 grams (10 Years)
Marijuana- 100 plants or 100 kilos (5 Years) 1,000 plants or 1,000 kilos (10 Years)
Crack cocaine- 5 grams (5 Years) 50 grams (10 Years)
Powder cocaine- 500 grams (5 Years) 5 kilos (10 Years)
Heroin- 100 grams (5 Years) 1 kilo (10 Years)
Methamphetamine- 4 /5 grams (5 Years) 50 grams (10 Years)
PCP- 10 grams (5 Years) 100 grams (10 Years)

In other words you'll get more time for growing 100 pots of weed than you would for molesting a child. Mandatory sentencing reminded me of when I went on a Government retreat in High School. It was one of those get the "smart Burb and City kids together"-type of deals. Our speaker was a person, (who shall remain nameless), running for the US Senate. During his speech he disclosed that part of his platform included a push for the death penalty for "Dope dealers". During the Q & A segment I questioned the logic in the mandatory death penalty as I raised the question of whether he seriously thought he would be able to "electrocute" the cop, attorney, or judge who were getting paid to turn their heads. I asserted that the person most likely to be electrocuted was the kid who sat in back of me in second grade. The one who came to class smelly and hungry everyday. The one, who by middle school, was the best dressed kid in school courtesy of the dope money he was making. He wasn't just buying clothes and food for himself he was also supporting his siblings, paying rent and utilities because his grandmother had died, his father was in prison, his mother was strung out on drugs and at age 12 he was the oldest and therefore in charge. The press was there and my comments were reported. Needless to say that person did not win the Senate seat they were vying for. After I heard that news I felt I had won the battle now I know that I'd lost the war.

So John Forte, after serving 7 years of a 14 year sentence, will be home for Christmas. He's served more than enough time as punishment for his lapse in judgement. I only wonder how many more "John Forte's" are sitting behind bars destined to serve their full sentence because there are no influential friends and budding music career to persuade a President to commute their sentences. Congratulations to Mr. Forte on his commuted sentence! Bravo to President Bush for seeing how excessive the sentence was. But, Pardon me Mr. President what about the rest????

~d-the-VIP