Mandatory Life Sentence Overturned
from the second-chance dept.
Here’s a scary one: Theresa Wilson was a first-time, nonviolent drug offender. Basically, the 34-year-old mother of two tried to sell some prescription medication to an undercover police officer for $150 to pay an overdue electric bill. Her mandatory minimum sentence, under Alabama’s strict narcotics laws: life in prison. On Wednesday the state Supreme Court upheld an appeals court’s reversal of the original sentence as “grossly disproportionate.” She’s now a free woman. Um, could our friends in the legislative branch please stop playing “dicklier than thou”? These are people’s lives we’re talking about.
