Oklahoma Woman Sells $30 Worth of Weed, Gets 12 Years In Prison

[cali]

Mike Riggs | May 19, 2011

In January 2010, Dee Starr and her grown children William Lamebull and Patricia Spottedcrow* were arrested in an early morning raid after selling $31 worth of marijuana to undercover police. According to Oklahoma City's KFOR-TV, it was their first felony arrests. Each was held on $100,000 bond. Each pled guilty. Here's what that got them:

William Lamebull faced the least serious charge, possession of marijuana around children.

He pleaded guilty and got two years probation, no jail time.

Dee Starr, who was facing more serious charges, two felony counts for dealing drugs and for having drugs in front of children, got 30 years probation, again no jail time.

Patricia Spottedcrow pleaded guilty to her crimes as well.

She faced the very same two felony charges as her mother, Dee Starr.

However, Spottedcrow got a 12 year prison sentence, no probation.

She was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for selling two baggies of marajuana worth about $30.

According to KFOR-TV, Judge Susie Pritchett, who retired a few months after ruining Spottedcrow's life, said the "sentence fit the crime" because "Ms. Spottedcrow showed no signs of remorse, nor did she seem to even care about what she was doing to her children." Incidentally, Judge Pritchett does not ruin every drug offender's life. She once heard the case of a police officer's wife who was caught hiding marijuana in her panties. The woman "was asked to apologize to the judge and never served a day in jail," a decision Pritchett defended, arguing, "I treat drug users differently than I treated those who pushed drugs, especially when they sold in front of children."

Mark Clayborne, Spottedcrow's attorney, did not "challenge" his client's pre-sentence investigation report, which Spottedcrow says is rife with inaccuracies. Six months later, Clayborne was convicted of perjury in a different case. Spottedcrow now has a new attorney who will ask for a sentence modification next year. Until then

<snip>

http://reason.com/blog/2011/05/19/oklahoma-woman-sells-30-worth

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Preposterous

These judges are out of control.

[liberal N proud]

2. Just a guess but are the prisons in Oklahoma private?

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/deliverdocument.asp?citeID=83891

Prisons for profit require keeping the cells full.

[Le Taz Hot]

3. See? It's stories like this that keeps me

criticizing Obama. Yes, I KNOW this wasn't the feds but he continues to support this insane War on Drugs which we all know is a War on the Poor/Middle Class. Oxycontin boy walks free but what would the consequences have been if he was Joe Brown living in El Centro, CA?

This is just indefensible.

[Fumesucker]

4. 12 years times ~ $30,000 per year..

$360,000

Totally worth it to get such a vicious and depraved criminal off the street.
































:sarcasm:

[Recursion]

5. Wasn't she the one who had her 8-year-old kid make change in the deal? (nt)

[reggie the dog]

6. this is crazy, i have a friend who was caught with a pound in OK

back in the 90's and all he got was a speeding ticket and a 200 dollar fine for the weed. they even left him a bud to roll 2 joints in the ashtray! he is native american too so they didnt favor him for being white. he told the cops he bought it because it only cost 200 dollars in Texas and back in illinois he would have spent over 1000 dollars for that much and that he planned to smoke it for a year. they just let him go when he paid his speeding ticket plus a couple hundred in cash.

[sarcasmo]

7. The prison system, police state is out of control in this country. Tax it and Legalize it.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Saving the kids by locking up the parents for their entire childhoods.

That's messed up.

[Angry Dragon]

9. There is no fair justice in this country

[coalition_unwilling]

10. Yipes. Three issues call out for a re-consideration: first, the

Constitutional ban on 'cruel and unusual punishment' seems relevant here, especially since the Constitution says nothing about having to show remorse (a subjective and easily simulated display) to avoid being cruelly and unusually punished.

Second, the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.

Finally, an ineffective assistance of counsel

[Recursion]

15. Well, she brought weed with her *to the sentencing*

It's a stupidly harsh sentence, but that was a stupid thing to do.

[struggle4progress]

11. "$30 worth" -- What is that at today's prices in Oklahoma? I'd guess $100 an ounce

might be typical -- but for fractions of an ounce the price would go up, so $30 might be a few grams -- maybe enough to roll four or five doobies?

I'm really out of date on all this: when I was last interested, Tom Jefferson would snag you a full ounce and Ben Franklin a full pound

[tuckessee]

12. Drug prohibitionists are the American Taliban.

From the pig in the street to the cringing suburban soccer mom to the guys in the White House, they are rabid fanatics who care not whose lives they crush to see their version of purity enforced.

[Obamanaut]

13. . nt

[Nye Bevan]

14. Cries out for commutation by the governor (nt)

[Blue_Tires]

16. Here's the original story instead of giving clicks to reason.com

http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-woman-gets-12-years-for-30-of-pot-20110518,0,2171777.story

[LetTimmySmoke]

17. 30 years from now people will look on this like we do on the Japanese internment camps.

[Blue Owl]

18. K&R for utter heinousness

n/t

[Keith Bee]

19. K&R

This is a worthwhile topic.