A man who was given a life sentence when he tested positive for marijuana in violation of his parole has been freed after serving 17 years in prison.
Tyrone Brown was 17 when he and a friend pulled a gun on a man in Dallas and demanded his wallet. They took $2 and gave the wallet back. The pair were soon caught and Brown was sentenced to 10 years’ probation. When he tested positive for marijuana the same year the judge, Keith Dean, changed the original sentence to life in prison, commenting: ”Good luck, Mr Brown.” The court-appointed defence lawyer failed to object.
The jailing of Brown, who is African-American, became notorious after it emerged how lenient the same judge was with a well-connected white man who was given probation for murder. The man repeatedly breached probation, including by using cocaine, but Dean sent him to a private treatment centre rather than jail and gave him ”postcard” probation whereby he wrote to the court once a year.
In jubilant scenes outside the prison in Huntsville, Texas where he had been confined, Brown was met by friends, family and media on his release. ”I still feel like I’m 17,” he told reporters, adding, ”I’d like to take a bath. I’ve been standing up for 17 years.”
Looking at family pictures on cellphone, he said: ”When I went in a phone looked like a big block of cheese,” he said. His mother, Nora Brown, said: ”It still doesn’t feel real … I keep pinching him.”
Following an outcry led by the Dallas Morning News, the Texas governor, Rick Perry, granted Brown a conditional pardon last week. But the terms of the pardon still place restrictions on the 34-year-old. He must live with his mother, report to a parole officer indefinitely, undergo counselling about his re-entry to society and submit to drug treatment.
”Even though I’ve got my freedom, I’m somewhat bound,” Brown said. ”I can’t predict the future. But I’m going to do everything I can to stay out of there.”
Dean has refused to explain his actions, arguing that the ”ethical code of judicial conduct says I can’t talk about any case at any point”. But in December he backed the prosecutor’s decision not to oppose parole for Brown.
In the wake of media coverage of the case the judge failed to win re-election to the bench last year. Dallas county officials and the parole board agreed that Brown should be released. The victim of the $2 robbery also argued for the sentence to be terminated.
Charlie Douglas, a Florida attorney, championed the cause, setting up a website, savemrbrown.com, to channel support for his release. Brown also had a page on MySpace, where he described the conditions of his incarceration and offered support to those in similar situations.
Describing his poor background and fragmented family, Brown laid part of the blame with his defender. ”My biggest mistake was being unable and unwilling to communicate with my attorney about options and to ask him how well he knew his job,” he wrote. – Guardian Unlimited Â