‘The Travesty of It All’: Court Upholds Mississippi Man’s Life Sentence for 1.5 Ounce of Marijuana Possession, and His Case Is Not An Anomaly

A Mississippi man will spend life in prison for possessing an ounce-and-a-half of marijuana because of the state’s strict sentencing law.

Allen Russell, 38, was sentenced to life without parole in 2019, after being found guilty of having 1.54 ounces of marijuana. The simple possession charge would typically lead to a three-year sentence. However, prosecutors opted to enhance Russell’s charges because of his criminal record.

Legal experts said although Russell’s punishment is harsh, it is not unprecedented in Mississippi and most other states with habitual offender laws.

Allen Russell was sentenced to life in prison on a marijuana charge because of Mississippi’s habitual offender laws. (Photo: Mississippi Department of Corrections)

“That’s the travesty of it all,” Matt Steffey, a Mississippi College law professor, told Atlanta Black Star. “This to me is a familiar story that’s no less shocking and horrible just because it’s familiar to the point of almost being routine.”

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the criminal court judge “followed the letter of the law” in his sentencing. Russell is one of several Black men that habitual offender laws disproportionately have impacted.

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Under Mississippi’s statute, any person with two previous felony convictions, where at least one of those offenses is violent, can be sentenced to life in prison without parole if they are convicted of a third felony.

Russell previously had been convicted of two separate charges of house burglary and one charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, according to reports.

Although Black men make up 13 percent of Mississippi’s population, FWD.us data shows 75 percent of the people in Mississippi’s prisons on habitual sentences over 20 years are Black men.

Reports show that about 43 states and the District of Columbia have some version of a habitual offender statute. Many were motivated by Ronald Reagan’s “tough on crime” campaign.

The statutes often allow prosecutors to pursue an enhanced charge on any offense, commonly known as the “three strikes” rule. Russell accused prosecutors of violating his Eighth Amendment right to be free from “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Source: ‘The Travesty of It All’: Court Upholds Mississippi Man’s Life Sentence for 1.5 Ounce of Marijuana Possession, and His Case Is Not An Anomaly