ATLANTA — Some metro Atlanta men are spearheading a movement to right wrongs caused by the 1994 federal crime bill. The controversial law has been blamed for the mass incarceration of many in the Black community.
Now, 10 metro Atlanta men who served time under the now infamous law are asking President Joe Biden, who sponsored the bill as a United States Senator 30 years ago, for a pardon, hoping the stain of their conviction will be erased.
“We’re asking the federal government for an official act of forgiveness,” said Eric Girault, who spent 13 years behind bars after being convicted of conspiracy to traffic marijuana under a policy created by the 1994 crime bill.
“They call it 'ghost dope,' with historical weight. So the 'ghost dope' means that they don’t actually have to have the drugs, and the historical weight is that they can bring people in to say that you were bringing them a certain amount over a period of time, and they just extrapolate from that," Girault said as he described how his sentence was calculated.
Atlanta resident Ricky Brown had a similar experience.
“I was charged with conspiracy, and we have to understand that in the '94 crime bill, there was no drugs. I was never found with any drugs. It was all hearsay. Back then, two or three people could say, 'Hey, I sold this guy some drugs, or we did a drug deal together,”' Brown explained.
He was sentenced to 13 years for conspiracy to sell crack cocaine, and he said those caught with the drug fared even worse.
“I even had a roommate at one time. He had ten dollars worth of crack, and he got 30 years. If you were caught with one gram of crack cocaine, the law of the '94 crime bill said now that one gram now, since you put baking soda in it, is now 100 grams,” Brown explained.
Brown said the harsh sentences were unfair, and he and Girault are joining eight other Atlanta residents who are asking Biden for a pardon.
“This was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. We need to go back and look at these laws and look at how many lives it has destroyed,” Brown said.
"We feel, and the federal government has admitted and accepted, that the '94 crime bill ... it was too harsh. It carried draconian sentences. It was unnecessary and it was discriminatory.”
The men said they turned in their paperwork on July 3 and are now waiting for a response from the Biden Administration. They also said the Trump campaign has reached out regarding their requests for pardons.