JUSTICE HAS ALREADY BEEN SERVED

Todd Vassell has been locked away in federal prison for 15 years. He has never been convicted of any violent crime. Vassell’s crime was that, when he was just 16, he looked up to adult males on his neighborhood block in the South Bronx.  Those men happened to be making money, and providing for their families by selling drugs. Impressionable and immature as most are at age 16 and with no other male role model to turn to, Todd turned to the streets and was quickly taken under the wing of drug dealers.  When arrested, Vassell was the only one who exercised his right to a trial.  He was the youngest and least culpable of 12 codefendants all of whom were 5-15 years his senior.  Vassell stood before the federal judge who sentenced him to die in prison. In 1997, the law required a mandatory life sentence and the judge had no discretion. All of the other codefendants, including the two ring leaders and most culpable, received 25 years or less in prison and they have all been released with the exception of Todd and two others who have release dates fast approaching.

Todd Vassell’s mandatory life sentence is fundamentally unfair. Non-violent teens should not be permanently banished from our society for a first-time drug offense. In a historic ruling last year, the Supreme Court declared in Graham v. Florida: “The Constitution prohibits the imposition of a life sentence on a juvenile offender who did not commit homicide.” Less than one month after the Supreme Court’s Graham decision, on August 3, 2010, President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, which was designed to reduce harsh federal drug sentences. Todd Vassell is still sentenced to life in federal prison, even after the Supreme Court’s Graham decision and the Fair Sentencing Act. Federal courts have repeatedly refused to allow him any opportunity to benefit from positive changes in the law.

Permanent banishment is not the answer for nonviolent juvenile first offenders. Todd Vassell is the face of a flawed “War on Drugs” and the excessively harsh juvenile sentencing practices that were a collateral consequence of that war. He is also a face of maturity and rehabilitation.  It costs the federal government $28, 800 per year to keep Todd Vassell in prison. Taxpayers will have spent millions of dollars to keep this juvenile, nonviolent first offender locked up.