Voice Box: Should people with a criminal record involving marijuana be exonerated?

Staff Writer

Q: Should people with a criminal record involving marijuana be exonerated?

“Yes, the prison system today has more people convicted
for reasons that they shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Now, if I’m going to talk about race, it’s mostly people of
color that occupy American prisons today; and talking about
[marijuana], I think since they were working on some sort of
legislation on the amount of [marijuana] each individual can
possess, I think they can use that same scale to figure out
on the amount of people they can let go. Because of cases
where people going to prison for just a tiny amount of [marijuana]
and they get ridiculous sentences!”

“No. That was a law that they broke knowing that it was
against the law.”

Bobby Golden, 36
Nursing

“Absolutely, it’s unconscionable to legalize and not do this
otherwise. I don’t think justice would be served if we don’t
exonerate and expunge their records. So many people have
had their lives ruined by possession just to feed the prison
industrial complex.”

“I do because marijuana back then has been demonized a lot
and now it’s been proven that alcohol is more harmful than
marijuana. We see people with DUI’s in the streets and yet
people have gone to prison for small marijuana charges. I
hate to bring race into this, but where I come from, there’s
a lot of racial profiling and generally, and people who get
charged the hardest are people who are black; a lot of my
friends have been thrown in prison for that reason. I would
like to see them be exonerated.”

India Clark, 26
3D Animation

“I believe that anyone with a criminal record involving marijuana
should be exonerated now that it’s legalized. I know a
few people who’ve had issues on their record or been raided
in the past and now it seems that just everything that’s been
done to them means nothing, like, what was the point? I feel
like that’s something that should go into effect now rather
than later. There are still people waiting out there that still
go to probation that would like it to go away and be normal
[again].”

“Yes, especially for non-violent offenses, I think that they
should be exonerated. People have –even for first offenders
–people were given crazy sentences like 10 years to life
sentences for nonviolent crimes with having marijuana and
I think that it’s unfair; especially since marijuana is legalized
now. I think it would be good for a lot of people and
families.”

Khalia Brown, 24
Pre-Law

“No, because at that time it was still illegal and they broke
the law; so they should be punished for it.”

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