Equal Justice Matters Wall (A)
Aaron, Clarence
Alford, Charles
Allen, Donald
Anderson, Ivan
Clarence Aaron with his nieces. Their mother, Aaron’s sister, died suddenly in 2005. Aaron says he is close to his nieces and calls them every week. Before he was imprisoned, Aaron tried to serve as a male role model and father figure to his older niece, as her father did not take an active role in her life. Aaron’s nieces visit him in prison whenever they can.
CLARENCE AARON
Clarence Aaron was a linebacker as Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Aaron worked as a longshoreman during his summer breaks and was active in community service at home in Mobile, Alabama, as a Mason. According to the trial court, Aaron introduced a college classmate whose brother was a drug supplier to a cocaine dealer he know in high school, for which he was paid $1,500; arranged for the transportation of nine kilograms of cocaine; and was present for the sale of those nine kilograms of cocaine and the conversion of one kilogram to crack. Aaron was also found to have travelled from Mobile to Houston with $250,000 to purchase cocaine for a planned 15-kilogram drug purchase that did not happen.
Aaron refused to testify against his co-conspirators and said that he knew little about the deal because of his minor role, but his co-defendants testified against him in exchange for reduced sentences. He was convicted at trial of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 23 kilograms of powder and crack cocaine, possessing nine kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute, and attempting to possess 15 kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute.
Aaron was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for these nonviolent drug offenses. They were his first offenses, which he committed when he was only 23 and in his final semester of college. He received a longer sentence than his more culpable co-conspirators, all but one of whom have been released from prison (the last one is scheduled to be released in 2014). Conceding her son’s serious error in judgement, his mother, Linda Aaron-Mcneil, said, “At the time, neither Clarence nor I had any idea of how harsh a penalty he would receive for this error. When the judge announced the sentence of three life terms, my heart shattered into a thousand pieces. Since this nightmare began, I merely exist. The pain never subsides.”
The judge who sentenced Aaron, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Butler Jr., later wrote in response to a motion for resentencing filed by Aaron’s attorneys, “Looking through the prism of hindsight, and considering the many factors argued by the defendant that were not present at the time of his initial sentencing, one can argue that a less harsh sentence might have been more equitable; however, this Court is powerless to act in a pardon capacity.”
Aaron has repeatedly sought clemency, apparently his only chance to be released from prison. The U.S. Attorney’s Office that prosecuted him and the federal judge who sentenced him supported his second petition for commutation, which was filed in 2007; the prosecutor’s office recommended his LWOP sentence be commuted to 25 years, which would have meant release in 2014, and the judge supported commutation to time served. The clemency petition was rejected in 2008. According to an investigation of Aaron’s case by ProPublica, in his recommendation to former President George W. Bush that he reject Aaron’s request for commutation, Pardon Attorney Ronald Rodgers failed to disclose that the prosecutor and judge supported commutation. Aaron submitted a third petition for commutation in April 2010, which is still pending.
Now 43, Aaron has spent almost 20 years in prison. He has completed a two-year religious studies correspondence course through Emory University and has taken every computer skills course offered by the Bureau of Prisons. He has also taken courses in microeconomics, Spanish, photography, and behavioral development. He served the first 12 years of his sentence in maximum security prisons in Florida and Georgia, and he was transferred in 2007 to a lower-security federal penitentiary in Talladega, Alabama, because of his record of good conduct. He has held coveted factory jobs in the institutions where he has been imprisoned and has managed to save a relatively substantial sum from his prison wages. He has stayed in regular touch with his mother, sisters, other family members, and friends from high school and college. His commutation petition has strong support in his family’s close-knit Mobile community. Dozens of letters have been submitted to the president urging his release from Pastors, Business leaders, and educators, all of whom know him and his family personally. He has been offered several jobs upon his release.
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 40).
*Clarence’s sentence was ultimately commuted by President Obama after serving more than 20 years behind bars.
CHARLES ALFORD
Alford ran and operated a parking lot in New Orleans. In February 1996, when he was 30 years old, Alford says he tried to set up a drug deal, unaware that he was interacting with an undercover officer. Alford was charged with possession of cocaine, but he was convicted at trial of the lesser offense of attempted possession. He was sentenced to mandatory LWOP as a third-strike offender under Louisiana’s habitual offender law. According to Alford, he had two prior convictions, one for possession of a stolen 10-speed bike in 1985 when he was 20 years old, and another for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute in 1989 when he was 24. Alford says of his sentencing, “My life flashed in front of me. I thought I was going to die in Angola. I remember being scared to tell my mother, I did not think she could have handled this.” Since he was incarcerated 17 years ago, he has studied welding and woodwork and graduated from his prison’s welding program. If released from prison, he wants to get married and work as a welder. Alford, who now is 47 years old and incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, told the ACLU, “[It is] hell here at Angola, wondering will I ever get married, will I ever own land, build a house. When you watch T.V. it really hurts; you see how beautiful the world is.”
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 121).
Charles Alford, at his graduation from the Louisiana State Penitentiary welding program.
Donald Allen with his sister, nieces, and nephews.
DONALD ALLEN
Allen grew up living for periods of time with his grandmother in Alabama; his mother in Panama City, Florida; and his father in Albany, New York. He says he became involved in selling drugs after witnessing his father selling drugs from time to time. At age 14, he began selling marijuana to friends at a nightclub, and by age 15 he started selling crack cocaine. At the time of his arrest, Allen worked at a Kmart.
At age 19, Allen was arrested with two co-conspirators following a controlled drug buy that took place in a truck. According to Allen, in December 1997, he and his brother-in-law, Michael Montalvo, discussed selling crack cocaine that Montalvo had brought to Panama City, Florida, from Atlanta. Allen says that while he was present, Montalvo sold three-quarters of an ounce of crack cocaine to a four-time convicted felon. The buyer later testified that he had twice bought drugs from Montalvo in the past in Allen’s presence, and that he had made arrangements to buy additional crack from Montalvo later that night. The buyer’s brother was incarcerated in federal prison at the time. Reportedly in an effort to obtain a sentence reduction for his brother, the buyer contacted the police to inform them of the impending drug deal and serve as a confidential informant.
Later that night, Allen and Montalvo drove to the buyer’s house to complete the drug deal. Allen says that he sat in the passenger seat, Montalvo drove, and a third co-conspirator sat in the backseat. According to Allen, after he met the buyer at the door and explained he had to deal directly with Montalvo, the buyer entered the truck and negotiated the price with Montalvo. Upon the buyer’s signal at the conclusion of the deal, police entered the vehicle and found the crack cocaine, two firearms, and cash. According to Allen, when police subsequently searched him and his house, they did not find any physical evidence.
Montalvo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack and cocaine and the use or carry of a firearm during the commission of a drug trafficking offense; he agreed to cooperate with the government. Allen proceeded to trial on the same charges. His conviction was based in part on the testimony of his brother-in-law and the confidential informant, both of whom received sentence reductions in exchange for their cooperation. Although Allen maintains that he had no involvement in the deal itself, the court found that his actions constituted conspiracy and possession.
Allen complains that his court-appointed lawyer did not provide adequate legal representation. Moreover, he says his lawyer was also defending the confidential informant’s brother – the man whose possibility of receiving early release from prison motivated the informant to cooperate with police, and who therefore directly benefitted from Allen’s conviction.
Allen was convicted of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 421 grams of crack cocaine, and possession of a firearm during a felony drug offense. Shocked upon hearing the verdict, he said, “I simply did not know that I could be convicted of showing someone where someone lives at because I knew they were going to sell them something illegal.”
In 1998, Allen was sentenced to two terms of life without parole, plus a mandatory minimum sentence of five years on the gun charge. His LWOP sentence was mandatory because of two prior state convictions. Earlier that year, he says he had pleaded guilty to charge of simple possession of two small rocks of crack cocaine, committed when he was 17, as well as possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, committed just after his nineteenth birthday. Though the offenses took place more than a year apart, he pleaded guilty to both on the same day in May 1997. He received probation for both crimes, but was subsequently sentenced to 20 months in prison when he violated probation by committing the federal drug offenses.
Following his 20-month sentence in state prison for his prior convictions, Allen was transferred to federal prison, where he will remain for the rest of his life. He said that he was “too young to really understand” the implications of his sentence at the time. “What hurt the most,” he said, “was the fact that my mother cried in the courtroom and I was able to hear her sobs.”
Allen is now 35 and in his fifteenth year of incarceration. He told the ACLU, “I came in when I was only 19 years old and I have almost spent the same amount of time in prison that I have lived free. I have been locked up my entire adult life thus far.” He says, “It’s hard being separated from his family,” especially “being shipped all over the country and my family not being able to come and visit me…I have seen my nieces and nephews grow from little kids, which I used to walk to the bus stop, into mothers and fathers. All from prison. I have a nephew named after me because my brother thinks I will never get out of prison to have my own.” Allen has never seen his namesake nephew. After a decade and a half in prison, Allen says he has had only seven visits – about one every two years.
Allen spends his time crafting leather, learning Spanish, participating in church activities, and working a prison job. He reports that he has a clean disciplinary record. Despite having to grapple daily with the reality of this sentence, which he refers to as “the pain of foreverness,” he remains optimistic: “[I]t’s been hard, but you must find hope in all situations…I do the best that I can with what I have and that is all I can do. Regardless of my current situation, I simply strive for a better day.”
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 69).
*Donald’s sentence was ultimately commuted by President Obama.
IVAN ANDERSON
Anderson’s mother died when he was an infant, and he was put in foster care, where he says he was physically and sexually abused. When he was seven, he met his father for the first time. He went to live with his father and stepmother but reports he was abused by family members and eventually was returned to the foster care system, where, he says, “Sexual abuse and running away was the norm.” Anderson, who is Black and Latino, has since been diagnosed with depression and an anxiety disorder.
In January 2005, Anderson burglarized the unoccupied home of part-time Florida residents who were in Canada at the time. According to prosecutors, he took power tools, a television, a car, and a rifle. At the time of the crime, Anderson was enrolled in Florida Career College and pursuing a career in the medical field. He had held numerous jobs, including at the Missing Children Help Center, a supermarket, and car rental and car sales lots; he also held temp positions at construction and assembly-line job sites. He worked to support his wife and infant daughter and says he was struggling to pay off his and his wife’s college loans and credit card debts.
At trial, Anderson was convicted of armed burglary, grand theft auto, and two counts of dealing in stolen property for pawning the stolen television and power tools.861 The burglary was charged as armed because a rifle was taken from the home. A conviction for grand theft of items valued at under $300 was later overturned on appeal. Anderson was sentenced to LWOP under Florida’s Prison Releasee Reoffender Law. Because he committed the armed burglary within three years of his release from prison, he was mandatorily sentenced to the maximum sentence for this crime in the state of Florida: life in prison without the possibility of parole. Anderson’s prior convictions were for burglary of a structure, two grand thefts of a car, grand theft, and aggravated fleeing, all of which he committed at 19 over the course of seven months.
At Anderson’s sentencing hearing, the judge, Judge Richard I. Wennet, asked whether there was any legal basis for him to avoid imposing the sentence before announcing that he had “no alternative” but to impose life imprisonment as a mandatory minimum sentence. Judge Wennet told Anderson, “Mr. Anderson, I’m very sorry. There [are] a lot of bad people that have done a lot worse things than you—not that I’m saying that this was particularly a nice or good thing, but they’ve done a whole lot worse than you and not have had the opportunity to suffer what you’re about to.”
Anderson’s wife gave birth to a son in the months after the burglary and before his trial. At the time of Anderson’s sentencing, his daughter was two years old and his son was less than a year old. Now, his daughter, Aline, is eight and his son, Elijah, is seven. Anderson says that because of his own experience growing up without a family, he desperately wants to parent his children, whom he describes as the light of his life. “Life without parole means forever,” he says. “It means I won’t be able to buy my daughter her graduation present, I won’t be able to pay for her college tuition. I won’t be able to watch her or my son grow up….What it means, is endless.”
Anderson is now 31 years old and has been in prison for six years. He has worked as an orderly in the prison chapel and in the canteen. During his free time, he enjoys reading novels, writing his own novels, teaching other prisoners about entrepreneurship, and watching world news. If released from prison, Anderson says he would like to start a non-profit geared toward teaching the elderly how to use computers and another non-profit to help families who cannot afford to visit their relatives in prison to do so.
Click here to view original ACLU article (Page 129)
Ivan Anderson