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Tennessee Governor Announces Fast-Track Clemency Process for People Serving Outdated Drug-Free School Zone Sentences

Tennessee Governor. Bill Lee, the Tennessee governor announced that he is issuing grants to clemency this month to 17 persons. One of them had been in prison for violating a drug-free school area law which has since been replaced. According to the Republican governor, he will also establish a speed-track procedure for those who have already served their mandatory minimum sentences under an outdated school zone law.

There are laws in all 50 states that prohibit drug use from school zones. However, Tennessee has some of the most severe. These zones were created under the previous law. Covered large areas of urbanity, reaching 1,000 feet away from each school, park and library. These zones covered 27% of Nashville, and 38% of Memphis. The applicants applied every day, regardless of whether they had children. When one was driving in the area, they applied at private homes. A 2017 There are reasons investigation showed, this meant minor drug crimes resulted in mandatory minimum prison sentences that rivaled—and sometimes exceeded—those for second-degree murder and rape.

Tennessee’s legislature A bill was passedLast year, the area was reduced to 500 feet in size and the minimum mandatory requirements were applied only when a defendant is genuinely putting children at risk. However, the law did not go back into effect and hundreds of inmates were allowed to continue serving their sentences.

There are reasons highlightedCases like Calvin Bryant’s. Bryant (20-year-old college student) was arrested in 2008 after he sold 320 pills, most ecstasy-based, from his Nashville apartment to an informant. He was first accused of a drug crime. He would normally have spent at least 2 1/2 years behind bars. Bryant was able to be sentenced automatically because he lived within 1,000 feet from an elementary school. Bryant Was PublishedIn 2018, after the agreement of the local district attorneys not to oppose him appeal,

FAMM is a criminal justice advocacy group that supports mandatory minimum sentences. They have been pressing the governor and the legislature to give relief to those still under state law’s drug-free school zone laws. The Gov. Lee commuted Jamie Grimes’s sentence. Grimes was currently serving concurrent 30 and 25 year prison sentences. Grimes can now apply for parole.

FAMM chief Kevin Ring said he is “excited” and “encouraged” by the fact that the governor’s offices are taking action. We don’t have much information about the new Fast-Track process. Ring said, “We want to learn more about how this process will look like.” “How fast are you going?”

Lee’s office reports that 335 individuals are still in prison under the old law.