My dad was sentenced to die in prison for a non-violent drug charge. Please sign my petition asking President Obama to grant him clemency.
For the last 25 years, my entire life, my father has been behind bars serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. Over the years I’ve cried myself to sleep many nights, knowing that I’ll never have my father in my life. My father’s name is Michael Palmer and between 1987 and 1989 he made the wrong decision to get involved in selling drugs. In 1989, ten days before I was born, he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine and given a life sentence because he was painted as “a kingpin” — he was not. He was only 25 years old. Throughout my life I can honestly say I was embarrassed of my dad for selling drugs and ending up in prison. He left our family. But he is now 50 years old and not the same man he used to be. He was convicted along with four other men — three have been released and the other will be soon. The mandatory minimum sentencing laws that sent my father to prison for the rest of his life have since been reduced by Congress. Those laws created a 100:1 sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine and were based on assumptions about crack cocaine now known to be false. The impact of that disparity fell disproportionately on African-American families. My father committed a serious crime and deserved to be punished, but life without parole means he will die behind prison bars. After 25 years in prison, he has spent more of his life in prison than outside of it. He has paid his debt to society, been rehabilitated, and deserves to reunite with the grandchildren he has never met. He can only be free if President Obama grants him clemency. With your support, I believe that he will — just four months ago President Obama granted clemency to 8 non-violent crack-cocaine offenders. My dad is a good man who, even as a prisoner, has motivated me to be where I am at today. With his encouragement I graduated at the top twenty five percent of my class and I am now in medical school, soon to graduate in 2016. It’s time for my father to come home. Thank you, Taylor Palmer |
2 thoughts on “My dad will die in prison ~~”
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Be a Seed for Change 
I will sign the petition I received from Change.org. As a Jew I fight injustice and I believe your father’s sentence was too long. I also know you are not sharing the whole story of how organized your father’s drug gang was, how many weapons they put on the streets and the level of violence involved. Those are factors that are equally important. I admire what you have done with your life. You are to be applauded. I also encourage you to share the whole story. At first blush it seems unduly harsh to your father and when you research the case it is evident there is much more to the story.
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mr.adkins ,I did not create the petition, but if you do sign it there is a space to include comments on their site once you click their link. I like what you wrote and would love to keep it here unless you want it taken down, just let me know. I repost, reblog and post my own stuff as well
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