Parole denied for 68-year-old in Alabama: ‘A life sentence for growing marijuana’
Leon Hotchkiss, now 68, remains behind bars in Alabama, spending decades imprisoned for growing pot. The parole board thinks he should stay there.
Meanwhile, Trump’s a free man, goose stepping around in his fucking lift shoes, with 91 Federal charges against him. This country is so backwards.
Kind of makes you want to stop obeying laws, doesn’t it?
I’m a commoner and I haven’t lobbied any lawmakers, so the law still applies to me
I'm just this here: Eco-Defense
/s
Don't forget he pardoned supreme liar and felon Roger Stone who went on to plotting assassinations.
and biden is out running for president too after promising to legalize and police reform and firing staffers for using cannabis
people seem to still support him too
US elections are fucking insane
like watching clones dressed in different skins begging for votes with whatever empty promises they think and know the populace will eat up
Empty political promises are one thing and par for the course. Literally getting away with high treason on several documented accounts and still being able to run for president is another.
It's a flower that makes people happy and hungry. God fucking damn it. There is no fucking reason to destroy people's lives over this.
Two reason: Conservatism and Christianity.
Reminds me of the Ballarat Bandit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-gBErW4aoY
To put it short, he was a guy who led federal officers on a chase through the desert. They didn't know who he was, but he was stealing from travelers passing through. It wasn't far from some US government facilities, and this being not long after 9/11, they're super worried he's a terrorist.
Spoiler: he was a Canadian who started growing weed to help his wife's medical issues. He apparently made some primo bud and started selling it. Naturally, he got caught and was thrown in jail. When he got out, he moved out to the desert and tried to survive on his own.
Jail changed him. He became more paranoid and detached from his family, friends, and society. He wasn't the least bit dangerous until they threw him in prison.
There's one very good reason, according to authoritarians: slave labor. 'Murica.
I don’t understand how 40 years of prison for a non-violent crime isn’t considered to be both “cruel” and “unusual”. It is objectively cruel. I certainly hope that it is also unusual. I certainly hope that there aren’t many more like him, imprisoned for decades for what amounts to personal-use levels of pot. 5.5 lbs of pot when you include the stem and roots isn’t that much and certainly sounds like a personal supply to me.
These people are kept in jail to be used in labor. It’s not about being cruel. It’s about making money in the cheapest way possible. Since Alabama is a hellhole with no workforce they turn to modern day slavery.
Oh it's both. It's definitely both, the cruelty and the slave labor, which is cruel in and of itself as well.
Yeah, when you read the article you see that the parole board has stopped issuing paroles almost entirely in the last couple of years. This is 100% about manufacturing cheap labor and keeping the oligarchy running smoothly.
It is the most cruel people in the world that hide behind a law book and the pretense of being fair and worse even: past cases.
But since you first have to study for a decade, then kiss ass for a decade or two before even beginning to qualify for 'JUDGE' it is not more as normal you will have lost ALL BONDS WITH REGULAR SOCIETY.
If you think 15$+tax+tip is fine for a glass of wine with lunch on a daily basis; you are NOTTTTTTT qualified to speak for the benefit of society : in contrary!
Yeah I think you're mistaking what a Judges role is. It is merely to uphold the law. The problem in the US is that the role is so politicised that the idea they are legal experts rather than representatives of parties is being lost. They should be representative of society to an extent but ultimately the main qualification is legal experience.
The issue is the law itself and that comes back to the elected politicians in Alabama. It's a problem of one party rule, and first past the post electoral system plus gerrymandering which means a stagnant political system dominated by one segment of society. The US increasingly looks like a it's just a large collection of failed democracies.
You don't specifically need representative judges. You need electoral reform so you have an actual representative democracy, and everything else comes from that.
That will teach m!
Fuck Alabama and its bullshit ass laws
They probably do have ‘Ass Laws’ on the books there
The people of Alabama voted in an election (2014, I think) whether to keep or not the unenforceable law that forbids interracial marriage. More than 40% voted to keep it. Fuck them.
Life sentence for growing some pot. Meanwhile the Jan 6th insurrectionists are getting maybe 2 years, or if you're a card carrying proud boy terrorist you might be looking at up to 20 years.
Some guy beat someone so bad they need 24hr supervision, and he got 7 years. Cops get of with paid vacation for shooting or running over: dogs, unarmed adults and children, flash bang babies, drunk driving, beating their SO, planting drugs on innocent people. Did I miss anything?
War on drugs, no, it's a war on personal freedoms.
There are actual recordings from the Nixon Whitehouse where they decided that since they could no longer legally discriminate against people based on race, they'd have to find another way and drugs was it.
A war specifically on Black and Hispanic personal freedoms, at least historically that's how it began.
The weird outlier is a recent charge of a guy who assaulted 6 cops and got 5 years. A glitch in the system.
Try to overthrow the government- 18 months. Grow plants- life sentence.
America (for the time being), fuck yeah!
Leading the insurrection? Priceless.
Only 18 months?
..Tempting.
Shit of you succeed the. You don't have to do any time at all
This stuff just makes my blood boil. Those 3 assholes on the parole board are complete sociopaths. There's absolutely no justice here.
Someday we'll learn that these types of positions are only ever occupied by sociopaths, psychopaths, sadists, and those full of hate. Then we'll realize that the institutions they are part of were designed by the same type of people. Then hopefully finally we'll realize that every state institution was designed by this same group that believes they know the right way for everything and feel entitled to force their ways on everyone else.
It's actually a requirement I think.
In WA during lockdown, they requested compassionate release of someone who was paralyzed on half his body and confined to a chair. The DOC decided that he was a threat to society and needed to be kept in the COVID greenhouse.
That law provides several different levels of trafficking, and Hotchkiss was convicted under the lowest level – having between 2.2 lbs and 100lbs. That weight includes all parts of the plant, root and stem and all.
40 years, jesus fucking CHRIST.
Who, actually, believes society is better off for caging this man??
An old pot grower's adage goes something like: if the sentencing minimum is for between 1-99 plants, you might as well grow 99.
People like Bud serve as the real life example for this kind of saying sadly.
This is stupid, why is the lowest charge range so big. 2.2 lb to 100 lb that is a huge range and you're telling me there is ranges higher than that? He already has life in prison the hell do they do with the higher ranges
And dirt they made sure to water.
usa fucking sucksssss especially the south
The United States is a fascist hellhole.
shitty country to live in
Alabama has an incredible climate for growing outdoor Cannabis, too...
It should literally be everywhere there.
a friend in highschool used to collect all the seeds and scatter them around town. de-seeding was part of the low-grade weed ritual. seeds would explode and blow-up your joints or bowls
Johnny Ganjaseed
Dude should try to overthrow the government and attack some police officers, he'll be back home in 2 to 5 years
Remember come election time who is responsible for this. Just like actions, elections have consequences.
The age of consent in Alabama is 16.
Let's not act like we were expecting much from alabama.
It's 16 in Minnesota and 17 in New York, but 18 in North Dakota. Let's not act like a higher age of consent is directly tied to progressive policies.
Also, Washington state, a solidly blue state. But also, let’s not suggest being allowed to drive a death machine is less responsibility than having sex, drinking, or voting.
So those are more states I wouldn't expect much from either but it doesn't lessen the "ew" I feel for Alabama.
They also just barely avoided voting for a fucking pedophile who would go cruising for little girls at the mall to the extent that they had to ban him. That state is backwards as all fuck.
That's a pretty common age of consent, or are you arguing that we should lock up like 40% of all teenagers?
Arguing?
Nah, I'm putting blame for backwards decisions on backwards states. Not here to argue with you ;]
art source : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/g2Z8Ke
Didn't return your grocery cart? Straight to jail.
Okay, I actually do agree with this one.
Thats what you get when you dare to do gardening
Pretty messed up. Let this poor guy go. On the bright side, does free healthcare and free room and board?
Free healthcare in that the prison doctor or nurse will refuse to diagnose him with anything until he's on his death bed and then give him comfort release so they don't have to take care of him?
I've heard prison healthcare is just as shitty as the food.
Don't they get charged that? As in it gets deducted from their slave wages.
What could the parole board's justification for denial possibly be? I don't see any risk from this guy, unless there's something more nefarious than 2.2 lbm of pot going on.
The cruelty is the point, as they say.
Guarantee that they looked nowhere beyond the actual text of the law and didn't consider anything else. This is only "it's illegal because we say it is and we will punish you for not conforming".
prison employees would be laid off if only criminals are in prison.
song about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4L20t8Dvlg
Remember these headlines any time someone makes excuses for the lack of action by the Federal Government, even when we give Democrats Congress and the presidency.
I hope you don’t consider the 50-50 split Senate to be one of the times we “gave Democrats Congress and the presidency”. Do you think they were going to find 10 Republicans and overcome the filibuster for that legislation?
The last time the Democrats had control that gave them a realistic chance of doing something like this, marijuana legalization didn’t even have majority support in the US. Even among Democrats it was pretty divided.
The time before that, Bill Clinton was president and was under fire for admitting he had ever tried marijuana in his life, and had to claim he “didn’t inhale”.
And those were all the times in my life that the Democrats had any sort of majority in Congress and a Dem president.
You make it sound like there have been these chances over and over. But there isn’t even one single time you can look back at and say “right here, you had all the opportunity in the world and we asked you to do it, and you didn’t do it”.
Yeah, I'm sure Joe Manchin is really pro-cannabis.
Another reason not to visit Alabama
Growing plants Alabama?
Straight to jail!
Drive too fast? Straight to jail
Drive too slow? Also jail.
Hotchkiss — who goes by his middle name, Bud —
Poor dude never even had a chance. 😔
2.2 -100lbs is a massive range especially when the weight every part of the plant. That's a difference of growing enough for a month to smoke and supplying the neighborhood. Two massively different goals.
It's Alabama.... so sadly predictable
Didn't Biden pardon marijuana convictions? Or am I just high?
Federal, not state convictions.
Biden, pardon this dude
No can do with state charges
Ah fuck, my bad. I don’t know much about clemency. So that’s why Trump is freaked out about Georgia
Not a federal crime or prison. Either the governor would have to pardon him, or he would have to get his appeal all the way to SCOTUS and get his conviction overturned. Neither of which seem very likely, unfortunately.
He literally does not have the legal power to do that.
Biden has pardoned a lot of federal marijuana charges, but a core part of the Constitution is that the federal government's authority to interfere in state justice systems is very limited.
Kill his kidnappers
He probably did something while in prison
He never should have been there in the first place.
It is what it is am I right fellas