John Forté, a rap artist and producer for The Fugees’ 1996 Grammy Award-winning album “The Score,” was on the commuted sentence list and is expected to be released December 22, when he will begin his five-year probation.
The 33-year-old Brooklyn native was nabbed by authorities at Newark Airport in 2000 and was convicted the next year of possessing 31 pounds of liquid cocaine (read: street value $1.4 million) with the intent to distribute, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years.
Carly Simon (whose son befriended the elite Phillips Exeter Academy graduate) and Republican Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (who wrote President Bush on Forté’s behalf) are among the musician’s supporters.
But they are not the only people heartened by Forté’s upcoming release. Joining them are sentencing reform advocates who see presidential clemency as a time to look at the bigger picture.
“For us it helps underscore just how insane these sentences are,” said Julie Stewart, founder and president of the non-partisan non-profit Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
“John was serving 14 years for a first offense for which he was remorseful, which was abhorrent behavior, which was not part of his regular lifestyle,” Stewart added. “It was a crazy sentence.”
While Stewart told me she was happy with Forté’s upcoming release, she added that President Bush’s commutations highlight the underlying problem that still needs to be addressed – mandatory minimum sentences.
“Repeal all mandatory minimums,” Stewart said. “Make the sentences make sense. We’re trying to make that happen by giving the courts the discretion that has been taken from them in the cases that carry mandatory sentences,” Stewart said.
In other words, the (federal or state) legislature needs to get out of the way.
Oh, yes. I almost forgot.
For those of you who have no idea who Forté is or for those of you who would like a trip down memory lane, listen to Forté ‘s “Ninety Nine (Flash the Message).”
