Ugly summer stories of southern justice in the form of extreme over-sentencing

The dog days of summer seems especially doggy this year, and here are a couple of notably ugly summer sentencing stories are part of this reality:

From CNN, "Louisiana Supreme Court upholds Black man's life sentence for stealing hedge clippers more than 20 years ago."  An excerpt:

A Black Louisiana man will spend the rest of his life in prison for stealing hedge clippers, after the Louisiana Supreme Court denied his request to have his sentence overturned last week.

Fair Wayne Bryant, 62, was convicted in 1997 on one count of attempted simple burglary. In his appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Louisiana in 2018, his attorney, Peggy Sullivan, wrote that Bryant "contends that his life sentence is unconstitutionally harsh and excessive."  

 

Last week, though, the state Supreme Court disagreed -- with five justices choosing to uphold the life sentence. The lone dissenter in the decision was Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, who wrote that "the sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed."

From Fox News, "Disabled Iraq veteran faces five years in Alabama prison for legally prescribed medical marijuana." An excerpt:

By all accounts, Sean Worsley is a war hero. He earned a Purple Heart, along with a laundry list of additional military accolades, for clearing roadside bombs in Iraq. He also earned a lifetime of post-service ailments, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a traumatic brain injury (TBI). As a result of his injuries, Worsley was given a 100 percent disability rating from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. He treated the worst symptoms of both injuries with medical marijuana prescribed to him legally in Arizona.

Now, Worsley sits in an Alabama jail facing five years in the state’s notoriously violent prison system after admitting to an officer he was in possession of medical marijuana while driving through Alabama and a subsequent probation violation for missing a court date.

UPDATE: I now realize that the headline of this local version of the Fox story more clearly summarizes the ugly sentencing reality: "Black disabled veteran sentenced to spend 60 months in prison for medical marijuana."