{"id":79362,"date":"2024-12-11T08:11:36","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T16:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/12\/11\/kansas-governor-frees-first-time-marijuana-offender-sentenced-to-more-than-seven-years-in-prison\/"},"modified":"2024-12-11T19:46:26","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T03:46:26","slug":"kansas-governor-frees-first-time-marijuana-offender-sentenced-to-more-than-seven-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/12\/11\/kansas-governor-frees-first-time-marijuana-offender-sentenced-to-more-than-seven-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas Governor Frees First-Time Marijuana Offender Sentenced To More Than Seven Years In Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that someone should be doing years for something that\u2019s legal all around us, and in a majority of states.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Kansas court said Deshaun Durham was supposed to serve more than seven years in prison for a first-time marijuana offense.<\/p>\n

Durham tried to sway the state\u2019s Prison Review Board to recommend clemency, and the board denied his application.<\/p>\n

But Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) overruled the board\u2019s decision November 6 and commuted<\/a> Durham\u2019s sentence. Friday, he walked out of the Hutchinson prison where he had spent the last two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

Durham, of Manhattan, was arrested as a 20 year old in 2020 for possession of more than two pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute. He had no criminal history and was later sentenced to 92 months. In the roughly two years between his arrest and sentencing, Durham worked as a Chinese food delivery driver and stayed out of trouble.<\/p>\n

Prison changed him, he said.<\/p>\n

Durham said he saw \u201cthings I\u2019m going to carry with me for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the outside, he felt people saw him as just a criminal. Inside prison, he wasn\u2019t criminal enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m losing myself,\u2019\u201d recalled his mother, Brandi Davis.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it was like, \u2018Wow, this kid has shown he can make the right choices, and they still thought he needed to be imprisoned for eight years,\u2019\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n

While Durham was serving his sentence, Davis spent her days advocating for his release. She joined with the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit drug policy reform organization, to pursue clemency.<\/p>\n

Barry Grissom, a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas under the Obama administration, represented Durham through his work as legal counsel for the Last Prisoner Project. Durham\u2019s plight isn\u2019t new in Kansas, he said in a news release on the day of Durham\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

He said Kansas ought to decriminalize marijuana possession, use and production and craft public policies that regulate and tax it like alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo fail to do otherwise means taxpayer dollars are wasted on investigation, interdiction, prosecution and incarceration of individuals, thereby depriving law enforcement from utilizing those funds for more meaningful law enforcement measures to keep us safe in our communities,\u201d Grissom said<\/p>\n

In his first few days on the outside, Durham attended a Kansas City Chiefs football game, at the invitation of wide receiver Xavier Worthy. He went back to his old job Monday at the Chinese restaurant. The owner was one of several people who wrote letters in support of Durham during his clemency process.<\/p>\n

In spite of his freedom, Durham is mindful of the thousands of others incarcerated for marijuana crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that someone should be doing years for something that\u2019s legal all around us, and in a majority of states,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Kansas Reflector.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Thousands Of Kansas Residents Have Medical Marijuana Cards\u2014From Neighboring Missouri<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post Kansas Governor Frees First-Time Marijuana Offender Sentenced To More Than Seven Years In Prison<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Kansas Governor Frees First-Time Marijuana Offender Sentenced To More Than Seven Years In Prison<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that someone should be doing years for something that\u2019s legal all around us, and in a majority of states.\u201d By Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector A Kansas court said Deshaun Durham was supposed to serve more than seven years in prison for a first-time marijuana offense. Durham triedContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79363,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79362\/revisions\/79363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}