Get notified by email when this case is updated.
Written by: E. George
Published July 9, 2024 @ 8:30 PM ET
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. – Two Georgia men who were arrested and served federal time for drug charges under a controversial 1994 crime bill have recently submitted their paperwork for pardons. They explained that although they served their time in prison, their convictions have lingered over them, affecting job and loan applications as well as their home-purchasing options.
The men said the convictions rendered them unemployable and destroyed their families. They are now asking President Joe Biden, who helped create the bill three decades ago as a senator, to help by granting them full pardons.
Business owner Ricky Brown stated, “As President Biden admits now, this law – he should have never written it. It was wrong then; it’s wrong now.”
Now 62 years old, Brown revealed that he was convicted of drug conspiracy in 1994 during the famous crack epidemic and served 13 years in a federal prison. He called the legislation discriminatory and said it targeted Black individuals.
Brown said, “You can lock a man up [if] you say he has a gram of powder cocaine. If he changes and put baking soda in it, now it’s 100 to one, not one. You sentence us by that. Men have gotten 30 and 40-year life sentences and are still there.”
Eric Girault served six years and four months in federal prison. He stated, “It was longstanding and far-reaching. This decimated not only my family but millions of families [and] communities of families across the United States of America. This is both sides of the aisle; no hands are clean.”
Brown and Girault submitted their paperwork for pardons to the federal courthouse on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
They said they want to listen to anyone who wishes to help their cause. Brown said, “We have heard from the Trump administration. They are interested in our story and what we are doing and possibly want to invite us to Mar-a-Lago to talk about this.
It’s not a Black or White thing. It’s not [a] Democrat or Republican thing. This is to right a wrong.”
Brown and Girault hope to spark a movement that will ripple through the nation.