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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFree Antonio Bascaró nations longest serving marijuana prisoner change.org
My father, Antonio Bascaró has been in prison for over 34 years with no prior criminal record for a non-violent, first-time marijuana-only offense all for helping supply a product thats legal in a growing number of states.
He is the longest serving marijuana prisoner in the history of the United States. Today he is 80 years old. I lost him to the legal system when I was 12 years old. I hardly remember him outside of that environment. My children barely know him.
This gentle grandfather of 8 spends his days in a wheelchair, mostly by himself, reading newspapers and listening to the news in his cell at a federal prison south of Miami.
He calls me two to three times a week to see how I am doing and staying in touch. I check on his health and we talk about plans for when he gets out hoping that on the next Christmas, birthday or summer we can be together.
My father has paid with his life (and ours) for that one marijuana offense. I think that the time he has served is more than enough punishment. He is not a threat to society and he has a large family waiting for him and ready to help him re-enter it. Thats why Im asking President Obama to please grant him clemency.
Please sign my petition asking President Obama to grant my father Antonio Bascaro clemency
https://www.change.org/p/eric-h-holder-please-grant-clemency-to-my-father-antonio-bascaro?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=201341&alert_id=vlZmoJoqFy_68ZJ8%2B9wUZMLKCwz9LttWz1cnLbb3YyrVN7NqRR4x9g%3D
.
Antonios Orwellian sentence includes such legal absurdities as:
a non-parolable parolable sentence.
a sentence exempt from the Obama administrations efforts to shorten drug sentences
because hes been in prison too long.
a sentence that doesnt qualify for the U.S. Sentencing Commission recent reforms (shortening the drug sentences of 40,000 federal prisoners) because
his sentence is too old to be shortened.
an ineligibility to receive compassionate release for elderly prisoners
because the regulations were written in a way that didnt take into account the existence of a man so old and locked up for so long.
http://clemencyreport.org/antonio-bascaro-nations-longest-serving-marijuana-prisoner/
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)people and their families.
But War Criminals walk free.
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Signed and shared widely.
Our "justice" system is a complete disgrace!
SamKnause
(13,110 posts)The justice system in the U.S. is a total disgrace.