There are 1,629 men and women sentenced to life without parole under Georgia's Senate Bill 441. Of these, 272 are sentenced to a literal death sentence without ever taking a life. They've been sentenced to life without parole plus decades of additional time for crimes where no one was hurt, no blood was shed, and no one was killed or sexually assaulted. These men and women are incarcerated and essentially buried alive without ever having buried anyone else themselves. Somewhere along the line, there is a clear violation of the U.S. constitution's 8th Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.

Besides the malfeasance used by prejudiced and overzealous prosecutors to abusively sentence black and brown inmates, the public needs to be aware of the egregious misuse of a law meant to protect taxpayers. Instead of protecting the taxpayer, these laws are being used to lock people up for the rest of their natural lives for sales and possessions of grams of cocaine and burglaries. Our message is clear -  "If a life wasn't taken, you shouldn't take a life!"

We're not nominating these men and women for the Nobel peace prize. We probably wouldn't trust the vast majority of the 272 inmates to take the church's Sunday morning offering to the safety deposit box. Sadly, some pastors can't be trusted with the Sunday's offering these days. We're simply asking that common sense thinking people set a boundary between true justice and lynching. How does a clear conscience vindicate the draconian sentencing of hundreds of people for the sake of ultra partisan zeal?

How do we make right the wrongs of over sentencing people for crimes that do not merit such draconian measures?

William Robinson was given four (4) life sentences without parole for selling drugs in Jessup, Wayne county, G.A. Not tons of cocaine shipped from overseas, but grams of crack cocaine, and for that, he has served 21 years with no hope of ever walking free again. It has cost taxpayers $840,000.00 to house a man who sold $300.00 worth of drugs.

Wayne Ross' grave is marked by two life sentences without parole for three sale charges in Eatonton, Putnam County, GA, in 2006. In all three sales charges, not one of them was for more than a gram. How does a public official justify spending $40,000 per year (for 15 years) to lock up a person who sold a combined total of $150.00 worth of cocaine?

James L. Cox's grave is marked by a life sentence without parole from Benhill county after the State Attorney used a prior juvenile record to enhance his sentence illegally.

Timothy Moore's grave is 25 years old, marking a life sentence without parole for drug sales. Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer have squandered $1,000,000.00 to house a man who sold $4,000.00 worth of drugs 25 years ago! Shouldn't there be a committee designed to question the validity of such sentences before they're used to nail coffins shut?

Ronald D. Lewis' grave has a 15-year-old marking a life sentence without parole for an armed robbery and two assault charges from Atlanta, DeKalb County, GA.

Clement Goss was zombified and left to try and crawl his way out of a locked grave when he was given life without parole for possession and sale of 900 grams of cocaine. Again, no one was hurt, no blood was shed, no life was taken except his.

O.C.G.A 17-10-30.1 (A) (B) (C) specifically states that life sentences without parole apply to "murder" cases, and it further says that a "jury" must include a finding of statutory aggravating circumstances, and the "jury" must affirmatively recommend life without parole.

The vast majority of the sentences handed down by the court involving life sentences without parole were done without the jury's knowledge. In all truth, few jury members would agree to give a person a life sentence without parole for burglary where no one was hurt, no blood was shed, and life was taken.

Our goal is to bypass the bureaucratic and often prejudiced red tapes and barriers to having access to a public official with the means to right a wrong. We aim to advertise our cause in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other local newspapers. We aim to keep the matter before the eyes of the public and the conscience of the humane-minded. There must be a solution to such disparagingly obtuse sentencing guidelines.

We're asking for your signature and help to challenge the governor of Georgia to commute life without parole sentences where no life was taken or a sexual assault committed and abolish Senate Bill 441.

A body in the ground can't be resurrected, but a living person buried alive still can be pulled out of the grave. I'm asking the taxpayers of Georgia to implore the governor of this great state to unearth the sepulcher of draconian sentencing and allow men and women without blood on their hands to see freedom again. Georgia has the "7 Deadly sins" enacted and used to justify sentencing inmates. Even sins can be forgiven by the Judge of history (Jesus Christ), so how is it that a robber, drug dealer, or burglar can't find forgiveness for their sins even after decades in prison?

The amount of money spent to house (entomb) men and women who should have been home with their families, working, opening businesses, going to school, serving their communities, and breathing fresh, God-given air is unaccountable. Under the guise of righteous indignation, the Georgia criminal justice system exercises prejudiced indignation to lynch men unjustly doled out to them with time.

These men have been forgotten and left for dead, in caskets made of steel, concrete, razor wire fencing, and long guns at the perimeter. No matter their pleas, no matter their screams, no matter their efforts, society chooses to look away from the graveyard lest the unthinkable should confront them, lest they should find walking dead zombies haunting their conscience and dreams. The fear of seeing skeletal remains of broken, defeated, despaired, and traumatized men were staring back at them with nothing but the moan and growl of a corpse without voice or language.  

Our end goal is to help other powerless and overwhelmed people find some breathing room to breathe fresh air again. We want to be the catalyst for change so that 272 voiceless and powerless people who don't know or can't strategize a way out of their living nightmare may someday have hope.

"When it comes to the matter of sin, Let God show mercy,

When it comes to the matter of law, let man be just!" R. Noel

 

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