Louisiana Man, Sentenced To Life In Prison For Selling $20 Of Weed, Finally Freed

A man in Louisiana who received a life sentence for selling $20 worth of marijuana has finally been released.

A Louisiana man who was sentenced to life-in-prison for a $20 marijuana charge 12 years ago was finally released from Angola State Prison, earlier this week.

John Sommers II / Getty Images

“I’m full of joy,” 53-year-old Fate Winslow told CBS News. “I’m so happy, man. I got to be with my family last night once I was released, and I can’t explain it. I’m so happy.”

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Winslow was convicted for selling two dime bags to an undercover cop while homeless in Shreveport in 2008. He was given the inhumane life sentence because he had three previous convictions, thus earning him the infamous “three-strike rule” from the habitual offender statute in Louisiana.

The man’s previous convictions include burglary in 1985 when he was 17, a car burglary in 1995, and possession of cocaine when he was 36.

“I wish Fate was our final client, but that, unfortunately, is far from the truth,” his attorney, Jee Park, told WSGW. “There’s a reason why Louisiana is the incarceration capital of the world. We have a lot of work to do.”

“There are hundreds of individuals serving life sentences for nonviolent crimes in Louisiana,” Park said. “Instead of throwing the book at Mr. Winslow and sentencing him to life imprisonment just because we could, does not mean that was constitutional, legal, and humane. He received an obscenely excessive sentence given his life circumstances and crime, and today, we are correcting that unconstitutional, inhumane sentence.”

[Via]