Half Ounce of Pot Gets Louisiana Man Twenty Years in Prison, By Bill Quigley

While Colorado and Washington have de-criminalized recreational use of marijuana and twenty states allow use for medical purposes, a Louisiana man was sentenced to twenty years in prison in New Orleans criminal court for possessing 15 grams, .529 of an ounce, of marijuana.

Corey Ladd, 27, had prior drug convictions and was sentenced September 4, 2013 as a “multiple offender to 20 years hard labor at the Department of Corrections.” 

Marijuana use still remains a ticket to jail in most of the country and prohibition is enforced in a highly racially discriminatory manner.  A recent report of the ACLU, “The War on Marijuana in Black and White,” documents millions of arrests for marijuana and shows the “staggeringly disproportionate impact on African Americans.”  

Nationwide, the latest numbers from the FBI report that over 762,000 arrests per year are for marijuana, almost exactly half of all drug arrests. 

Even though blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates, black people are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than white people.   

For example, Louisiana arrests about 13,000 people per year for marijuana, 60% of them African Americans.  Over 84 percent were for possession only.   While Louisiana’s population is 32 percent black, 60 percent of arrests for marijuana are African American making it the 9th most discriminatory state nationwide.  In Tangipahoa Parish, blacks are 11.8 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites and in St. Landry Parish the rate of black arrests for marijuana is 10.7 times as likely as whites, landing both parishes in the worst 15 in the country.   

In Louisiana, a person can get up to six months in jail for first marijuana conviction, up to five years in prison for the second conviction and up to twenty years in prison for the third.   In fact, the Louisiana Supreme Court recently overturned a sentence of five years as too lenient for a fourth possession of marijuana and ordered the person sentenced to at least 13 years.

Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) argues that “the “war on drugs” has been, is, and forever will be, a total and abject failure.  This is not a war on drugs, this is a war on people, our own people, our children, our parents, ourselves.” LEAP, which is made up of thousands of current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities, has been advocating for the de-criminalization of drugs and replacing it with regulation and control since 2002.

Arrests and jail sentences continue even though public opinion has moved against it.  National polling by the Pew Research Center show a majority of people support legalizing the use of marijuana.   Even in Louisiana, a recent poll by Public Policy Polling found more than half support legalization and regulation of marijuana. 

Karen O’Keefe, who lived in New Orleans for years and now works as Director of State Policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, said "A sentence of 20 years in prison for possessing a substance that is safer that alcohol is out of step with Louisiana voters, national trends, and basic fairness and justice.  Limited prison space and prosecutors' time should be spent on violent and serious crime, not on prosecuting and incarcerating people who use a substance that nearly half of all adults have used."

Defense lawyers are appealing the twenty year sentence for Mr. Ladd, but the hundreds of thousands of marijuana arrests continue each year.   This insanity must be stopped.

Bill teaches at Loyola University New Orleans and volunteers with the Center for Constitutional Rights. You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com.

Image above from New Orleans Indymedia.

Struggle Against Confederate Flag at Caddo Parish Courthouse Moves Forward

From The Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:
The Louisiana Supreme Court released its opinion in State of Louisiana versus Felton Dorsey yesterday, September 7, 2011. In a section titled “Endemic Racism,” the Court addressed the claim that the “presence of a confederate flag memorial outside the courthouse in Caddo Parish injects an arbitrary factor-race-into the capital sentencing decision.” The opinion acknowledged “the display of a confederate flag would be offensive to some” citing cases from the 4th and 11th Circuit Courts that recognized that “the confederate flag has multiple ‘emotionally charged’ meanings and is viewed by some as a symbol of white supremacy” and that “It is the sincerely held view of many Americans, of all races, that the confederate flag is a symbol of racial separation and oppression… it is not an irrational inference that one who displays the confederate flag may harbor racial bias against African-Americans.”

The Supreme Court recognized that race should never play a role in capital proceedings, but held that the issue was not “properly before it”, because defense counsel failed to raise an objection to the presence of the Flag at the time of trial. The Court stated that hearings should be conducted at the trial level as to the adverse effect of the flag on the “administration of the criminal justice system with respect to black defendants” before it would address the issue on appeal.

The decision did not address excluded Juror Mr. Carl Staples’ right to serve on a capital jury without the prejudicial influence of the Confederate Flag.

This opinion affirms the concerns of the community, including the 26 Caddo Parish and other Louisiana Clergy Leaders, 28 Law and history scholars, the ACLU, the NAACP, the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, the Equal Justice Initiative, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute For Race And Justice, the Southern Center For Human Rights and Mr. Carl Staples who signed onto the amicus brief in this case, that there is an unacceptable risk that the Confederate Flag injects racial bias into capital proceedings at the Caddo Parish Courthouse and that they must continue their efforts to highlight this in capital cases at the trial level.

“The Court has called for pre-trial hearings to determine whether the Confederate Flag injects racial bias into capital proceedings,” local pastor Reverend Sim Roberson responds, “So that’s exactly what we’ll do.”

Louisiana Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Confederate Justice in Caddo Parish

(For more on this story, see the recent LJI post on the case).
From a press release issued today by the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:

The Louisiana Supreme Court heard arguments today in the capital trial of State of Louisiana versus Felton Dorsey. Cecilia Trenticosta argued on behalf of Felton Dorsey. Anna Arceneaux, of Shreveport La., argued on behalf of the 26 Caddo Parish and other Louisiana Clergy Leaders, 28 Law and history scholars, the ACLU, the NAACP, the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, the Equal Justice Initiative, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute For Race And Justice, the Southern Center For Human Rights and Juror Carl Staples, that the presence of the Confederate Flag outside the Caddo Parish Courthouse had the invariable consequence of introducing race into the capital proceedings. The Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (LCADP) traveled with Carl Staples to the Louisiana Supreme Court to hear the argument.

Mr. Staples, an African American man and long-time resident of Shreveport, was removed from the jury pool when he expressed outrage at being asked to decide on the life of another man with the Confederate Flag flying on the courthouse lawn: “You’re here for justice, and then again you overlook this great injustice by continuing to fly this flag which . . . put[s] salt in the wounds of . . . people of color.” In Mr. Dorsey’s case, the State used five of seven peremptory strikes to remove African-Americans jurors.

Sophie Cull, Director of LACDP, described the Confederate Flag outside the Caddo Parish Courthouse as “a symbol of the disenfranchisement of African-American jurors.” The question before the Louisiana Supreme Court, Cull notes, “is whether Louisiana will embrace a new day of full participation in the democratic process.”

This case is a powerful example of the widespread discrimination detailed in last year's Equal Justice Initiative Report.

The LCADP is concerned about the way race infects the administration of the death penalty in Caddo Parish, where the vast majority of death sentences are handed down by near all-white juries for the murder of white victims, even though 80% of murder victims in Caddo are African American.

Photo: Amici in this case and their supporters outside the court following arguments. Each are wearing badges stating "Subject to Removal for Cause." Excluded Juror Carl Staples is front and center.

Louisiana Justice Institute Wins In Court!

Last week, the Louisiana Justice Institute won our battle in the Louisiana State Supreme Court, against New Orleans City Council efforts to silence us and have LJI director Tracie Washington disbarred.

Briefly, here is the full story: In October 2008, LJI launched Project Transparency. We did this because access to information, especially about our government and its activities, is part of our common heritage as US citizens, and it is a human right. Members of the public demand access to unclassified documents their tax dollars have been used to produce.

In December 2008, LJI made a request for the emails of several city council members, their staff, and members of the Nagin administration. Our intent? To support research and provide information to the public. And our research proved what we suspected all along: roving quorums of councilmembers, divided along racial lines. The reason New Orleans local government has become ineffective and growth stymied is due in no small measure to the racial tension exhibited amongst City Council members, petty bickerings, and tribalism one would expect in viewing Survivor – not local government.

But our councilmembers and their attorneys fought Louisiana Justice Institute at every step of the way – all the way to the State Supreme Court - to keep you from having full access to these records. Their battle against LJI cost us time and resources.

Last week, the Louisiana State Supreme Court agreed with the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board's (LADB) Hearing Committee Report and Recommendations, which found absolutely no grounds to the charges against Tracie and LJI. In fact, one LADB Hearing Committee member wrote, in this case “New Orleans City Government is using its influence to attempt to crush an opponent with ethical charges when the real battle is over its own incompetence and ineptitude. With scant evidence of any harm caused by the public release of three emails that bear no resemblance to privileged documents and with no evidence of future harm posed by Tracie Washington, the LADB, by its prosecution of this matter, has become a weapon of the city government and an instrument of harm to the public.”

The New Orleans City Council, in its petition to the Louisiana Office of Disciplinary Counsel, submitted misleading statements and outright lies to the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana, all in an effort to ‘punish’ Tracie and Louisiana Justice Institute for daring to challenge these government officials’ obsession with secrecy, closed government, and good ol’ boy politics of the 50’s and 60’s.

When LJI opened its doors on April 1, 2007, we took on the responsibility of serving as the first statewide civil rights legal advocacy law firm with a mission to foster and support social justice campaigns for poor communities and communities of color throughout the state. This work has been both challenging and exhilarating. We work with some of the most exceptional people and partners in both urban and rural communities, where the promise of our nation for true social justice reform has been ignored. Our enthusiasm for these campaigns is bolstered daily by the many calls for assistance and gratitude for our intervention, as individuals and, increasingly, community leaders understand it is only when we raise the standard of living for our most marginalized residents that this state will prosper.

We have no intention of giving up. In fact, the opposition and attacks we have faced only mean that we will fight harder.

We need your generous support now more than ever as we work to ensure our citizenry is not only fully informed, but motivated and mobilized to participate in the rebuilding and renewal of this great city. Your donation will make a real difference in sustaining and expanding Project Transparency and our other work areas, and in reinforcing the message that government belongs to the people – ALL THE PEOPLE – and we will demand accountability from those we elect.

Please make your contribution today. You can visit our website – www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org, and contribute directly online.

PS: Please remember that your donations are tax deductible as LJI is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit organization with 501c(3) status.