In another splendid use of my tax dollars, Louisiana courts have sentenced a man to life imprisonment after his fourth marijuana conviction. Prosecutors charged Cornell Hood II with one count of possession with intent to distribute. Hood was arrested after his probation officer found nearly two pounds of marijuana scattered throughout his house. Thanks to his three prior convictions, Hood now faces life behind bars. 

Apparently this is somewhat standard procedure for Louisiana law enforcement. Drug offenses are taken seriously in the state, and repeat offenders are often prosecuted as career criminals. But life imprisonment for intent to sell marijuana? It seems a little harsh even for a conservative state. 

Think about it this way: rapists and child abusers often go free after ten, twenty years. Perpetrators of crimes with distinct victims are getting less jail time than those of victimless crimes. Is this really the way we want our legal system to function? Does Louisiana really want repeat offenses of marijuana possession to carry the same sentence as murder? 
I hope the trial hasn't finished making its way through the gears of the legal system. Rulings such as this demonstrate that the ways in which parts of our country handle drug crimes is seriously wrong. Someone can brutalize another human being and still come away with less of a punishment than the one Mr. Hood faces. 

When you get down to it, it's not even about the specific crimes. It's about the type of person jurors want on their streets. Selling marijuana is not a violent crime, but the type of people that sell marijuana are easily construed as lifelong criminals--especially with repeat offenses. Juries such as this one seem to be more concerned with policing character than with regulating discrete actions. People respond to the idea of the drug dealer in the abstract more powerfully than they do his concrete crimes. And that idea of the marijuana-peddling criminal is not one they want hanging around their neighborhoods.

And after all, Hood had been through the grind of the legal system three times already. In the mind of a juror, he's an incorrigible criminal. First-time rapists may yet be reformed by their punishments, but not fourth-time drug dealers. It was too late for Hood's lawyers to portray him as someone who might change his ways in the future. 

In a time when certain states are (very slowly) decriminalizing marijuana, it's almost embarassing to see Louisiana enforcing law in this way. Hood may be a criminal, but he's also the victim of a broken system. It throws in casual drug users with violent criminals and incarcerates minorities at a much higher rate than white offenders. Drug prosecution is a dollar-eating machine that does more harm to communities than the criminals it creates. 

I only hope that Hood's case doesn't end here. Deputies seized most of his money, so he likely doesn't have the resources for an expensive defense lawyer, but I hope he manages an appeal. He ought to at least serve as an example of the injustice wrought by this kind of prosecution. His is not an isolated case, but it may make Lousiana's drug policy more visible to the rest of the country. 

(via Nola.com)