Patricia Spottedcrow, an Oklahoma woman who was sentenced to 12 years for selling $31 worth of pot, with no prior convictions, was released from prison yesterday (Thursday, November 29th), after serving almost two years of her twelve-year sentence.
Her case received significant coverage after the story was featured in 2011 Tulsa World series on why Oklahoma ranks number one for sending more women to prison per capita, than any other state. Grassroots organizers then rallied together to bring attention to this egregious example of our overzealous sentencing for marijuana-related crimes. It worked, outrage spread far and wide.
After several targeted campaigns to local law enforcement and elected officials, as well as an especially strong grassroots effort spearheaded by outraged mothers and reformers, the lobbying paid off. Officials decided to reconsider her twelve-year sentence.
In July of this year, upon the unanimous recommendation of the Pardon and Parole Board, Gov. Fallin agreed to approve her parole, contingent upon her completion of the community service part of her sentence. Today, Spottedcrow is a free woman that has since been reunited with her family and her three small children.
The NORML Women’s Alliance was deeply involved with this effort, as well as providing personal support to Patricia Spottedcrow through a formal letter writing campaign. She received an outpouring of support and sent the Alliance a personal thank you letter.
“This is an inspirational reminder that justice still exists. It proves that with cooperation and determination, grassroots efforts truly can make a significant difference in people’s lives,” said Sabrina Fendrick, Founder and Director of the NORML Women’s Alliance.
This is the nightmare we live under in Oklahoma.
Hi everyone thsnk you for supporting me and helping me get home to my babies now the real hard time has just began i haven’t been in society so long that everything is wierd but im trying to make it. Just want to say thank you at the least. Sincerly Spottedcrow
Galileo, black folks certainly have been through the ringer. The US government waged war on Native Americans, while US people waged economic and class warfare against blacks. Why do you think so many blacks rap about how cool it is to be considered a nigger without a future but 5-8 kids with different women. Really? These people never had a chance to develop normally and their futures stolen by evil people.
Please go and read the oklahoma state laws posted on this site regarding marijuana. I promise you will be shocked !For instance possesion of any part of the plant, seed, stem, leaf is a felony. Cultivation of even a single plant can land you in prison for life.Oklahoma has got to be the worst state in the country. If you are considering moving here, dont! If you live here and you can leave, you should !
Holy Phuck! So Sorry to hear about your ordeal. I lost my son to some sorry azz sh*t. -like, really? 12 yrs? Holy Poop! How can we help stop this barbaric mentality? How can we make the public officials piss-test/ hair sample test?
So I have a question. If it is legal to have up to one ounce and it is also legal to have up to 10 plants. what happens when you harvest several pounds from those plants? then you would have allot more then one ounce.
Stoned guy you brought up a good point. ALL I CAN SAY IS, YOU BETTER BUY A BIGGER BONG =)
Err, one way to answer good questions is to just read the law.
You can have three flowering plants, six in total. Whatever is the harvest is what you can own. If you go out in public you can only bring one oz with you on your person. The plants have to be grown inside where no one can see or know about them.
The whole idea here is to keep the amounts low, but access high so there aren’t huge amount of pot sitting around, like money at a bank, for thieves to target. Law, intelligently designed. I forsee, in a couple of years when pot isn’t so expensive, these very low limits start going up and the price per gram drops. Face it, if you have a lot of pot and people know about it, there is a good chance someone will try to steal it from you even if they don’t smoke just because they could turn around and sell it at these ridiculous prices. Who’s going to breaking to a house, just to loot your liquor cabinet? Far fewer folks, just because they could more easily get their alcohol some other way and they couldn’t sell it, hence no motivation. Weed is just too expensive right now–the price is comparable to a precious metal like silver. Shoot, thieves keep taking copper objects, even stripping it from live electric systems sometimes frying themselves, just to resell for cash. If they somehow got the idea you’ve got a couple pounds of herb? Now your family’s safety is at risk.