PART ONE: Letters: Let DA Todd Williams and ADA Alex Bass know your concern

We will be submitted this petition directly to DA Williams and ADA Bass, for those wanting to submit a letter in support of vacating the wrongful opioid trafficking conviction here are some thoughts. You may also wish to review the comment section herein: POINT ONE: The NC law under which Gordon was convicted needs to be amended to exclude prescription drugs, as it was not intended to apply to prescription pills. As noted in the Campbell Law Review, “It is difficult to believe that the North Carolina General Assembly intended the trafficking of opium or heroin statute to be used to send a person to prison for six years for possessing as few as seven Percocet pills; it simply does not further the legislature’s intent of ‘deterring[ing] large scale distribution of drugs in the state.’” One Tough Pill to Swallow: A Call to Revise North Carolina’s Drug Trafficking Laws Concerning Prescription Painkillers (2011) http://law.campbell.edu/lawreview/articles/33-2-451.pdf Gordon was convicted based mere possession of a bottle of his deceased mother's prescription from 2009 found in the back of a dresser. There was absolutely no intent to sell or traffic. This case shows quite clearly the overreach of NC in applying mandatory minimums based solely on possession of a substance. Recently, Asheville citizens were asked to drop off old prescription pill bottles in a community-wide effort. A 18-24 year sentence, a natural life sentence, for failing to dispose of an old prescription? This law needs to be changed. STAT PART TWO TO FOLLOW...... Mailing address: District Attorney's Office PO Box 7158 Asheville, NC 28802 Physical Address: 6th Floor, Buncombe County Courthouse 60 Court Plaza Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 259-3410 (828) 259-3411 (fax)