Pubdate: Fri, 08 Dec 2017
Source: Tennessean, The (Nashville, TN)
Copyright: 2017 The Tennessean
Contact: http://www.tennessean.com/SITES/OPINION/submit-editor.shtml
Website: http://www.tennessean.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/447
Author: Adam Tamburin

HE GOT 17 YEARS FOR SELLING DRUGS NEAR SCHOOL. NOW 12 NASHVILLE

OFFICIALS ARE FIGHTING ON HIS BEHALF.

Because the crime took place within 1,000 feet of a school, state law
mandated a longer sentence, one that the council members noted "was
more severe than the sentence he would have received for committing a
violent crime such as rape or second-degree murder."

Twelve Metro Council members have signed a letter urging a criminal
court judge to give relief to a Nashville man serving a 17-year
sentence on a nonviolent drug conviction.

Calvin Eugene Bryant, 31, was arrested in 2008 and booked in jail on
charges of selling drugs -- he was convicted in 2009. Because the
crime took place within 1,000 feet of a school, state law mandated a
longer sentence, one that the council members noted "was more severe
than the sentence he would have received for committing a violent
crime such as rape or second-degree murder."

Councilman Colby Sledge wrote the letter, which 11 other council
members signed, in advance of a Dec. 15 hearing on Bryant's petition
for sentencing relief in Judge Steve Dozier's courtroom.

According to a filing provided by Bryant's attorney, Daniel Horwitz,
one of the prosecutors initially involved in Bryant's case agreed that
Bryant should be released now, after serving nine years of his sentence.

Horwitz said he was grateful to the council members for their
input.

"It simply does not make sense to punish first-time, non-violent drug
offenders more severely than rapists and murderers," he said in an
email. "After spending the past decade in prison, Mr. Bryant has more
than paid his debt to society, and it is long past time that this
grave injustice be remedied."

Stricter sentences for drug crimes within 1,000 feet of schools have
been criticized as discriminatory in recent years, particularly
because they are more likely to affect suspects who live in densely
populated urban areas. Bryant was living in Edgehill Apartments at the
time of his arrest.

Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk, who took office in
2014, has been critical of the law and has promised not to apply the
law unless children are endangered as part of a crime.

A bill that would have changed Tennessee law so that penalties in
drug-free zones applied only to a 500-foot radius around schools,
libraries and parks was squashed by the General Assembly in March.

"The current zoning disproportionately impacts communities of color
and other people who live in cities where schools, libraries and parks
are close to other parts of the community," the ACLU of Tennessee said
at the time. "Because African American and Latino people are far more
likely than white people to live within drug-free zones, they are
automatically and unconstitutionally targeted for harsher penalties
for the same offenses in comparison to other Tennesseans."
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