Former Black Mafia Family head Demetrius Flenory aka “Big Meech” penned a jailhouse letter to Russell Simmons, in which he pleads with the music mogul to ask President Obama to issue a pardon. Meech points to the case of Fugees artist John Forte, who in 2008, with the help of Carly Simon, was able to successfully secure a pardon despite being in prison for a drug conviction.
“Most murderers, rapists, and child molesters get much less time than non-violent drug offenders. The punishments don’t fit the crimes when it comes to these drug laws and sentences,” Meech writes.
Part of a 2009 New York State revision made sentencing retroactive, which allows more than 1,000 inmates the opportunity to apply to a court for resentencing and possible release. This is what spurred Big Meech to contact Simmons in the hope that he’ll go to bat for him.
“Entertainers have used certain drug dealers or street people for street credibility,” Meech writes.
Meech uses T.I. as an example of what he could accomplish as a free man, pointing out the rapper’s “9 or 10 million dollars [T.I.] made the government before he did his first year in prison with his ‘Countdown to Lockdown’ television show,” he writes. “If I was home to take care of all of the legitimate opportunities that my fiance and I have, I could do just as much, if not more.”