Tyrone Brown Freed

Jacob Sullum | March 16, 2007

The Drug War Chronicle notes that Tyrone Brown [name corrected], the Texas man who got a life sentence for smoking pot while he was serving 10 years' probation on a robbery charge, was freed this week following a conditional pardon by Gov. Rick Perry. Unlike many imprisoned drug offenders, Brown was a predatory criminal, and he probably deserved a punishment more severe than the one he initially got, even though he was a first-time offender and no one was injured in the robbery (which netted $2). But to go from probation to life imprisonment based on pot smoking is so clearly indefensible that even Perry recognized the injustice—with a little encouragement from The Dallas Morning News, 20/20, the local sheriff, the district attorney, and (weirdly) the judge who sent Brown to prison, who is no longer on the bench and has never explained his reasons for resentencing him.

Comments

|3.16.07 @ 4:57PM|#

Tyrone no longer
Gets nightly beef injection
Freedom really rocks

|3.16.07 @ 5:12PM|#

Perry now courts Left,
Right hates for pushing vaccine.
Politicians suck.

|3.16.07 @ 5:14PM|#

Let's not make him our
poster child for unjust
sentencing guidelines.

|3.16.07 @ 5:17PM|#

Let me get this straight;
Judge who sentenced now sorry?
Boggles feeble mind.

|3.16.07 @ 5:18PM|#

Please stop with haiku
bosses look at me funny
with tears rolling down my cheeks

|3.16.07 @ 5:20PM|#

Haikus are really stupid
...
D'oh!

Confused|3.16.07 @ 5:26PM|#

He's not this guy, is he?

Images
by Tyrone Green

Dark and lonely on a summer's night.
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
Watchdog barking. Do he bite?
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
Slip in his window. Break his neck.
Then his house I start to wreck.
Got no reason. What the heck?
Kill my landlord. Kill my landlord.
C-I-L my land lord!

|3.16.07 @ 5:27PM|#

damn, 5-7-5
not 5-7-7, must
remember to count

jf|3.16.07 @ 5:31PM|#

Sweet Jesus no more
freaking haikus for comments.
I am begging you.

|3.16.07 @ 5:32PM|#

I cannot believe
his number came up today-
a day of all verse

|3.16.07 @ 5:35PM|#

Green was positive
one month into probation
Wood three years later

http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042306dnmettwomen.2e5ca5a.html

Wood had effective
representation. Would've
been no jail anyway

|3.16.07 @ 5:38PM|#

Judge was being a
dick though. In truth I don't need
these last syllables.

|3.16.07 @ 5:41PM|#

Judge may have gotten
the need to murder a high
hustler. Ted Haggard.

|3.16.07 @ 5:50PM|#

Sweet Jesus no more
freaking haikus for comments.
I am begging you.


In reality
the haiku greatly improve
H & R comments

conciseness of thought
creativity enhanced
discourages trolls.

|3.16.07 @ 5:57PM|#

Ay ya should get in the Irish spirit wit a wee dram and a limerick.

There once was guvna from Texas,
Wit goodhair and a shiny new Lexus,
He decreed a vaccine,
Set Tyrone Brown free,
And left Reasonoids braying and sexless.

|3.16.07 @ 6:18PM|#

Tyrone smoked a joint,
spent seventeen years in jail,
found justice, went home.

Sentence reversal
Release of recidivist
Tyrone forgiven

Fresh air, reporters,
a cry goes up for Tyrone,
Mom with open arms.

We still have questions
Judge Dean has secret answers
Tyrone has parole.

Many conditions;
The terms of Tyrone's pardon
include life with mom.

What next for Tyrone?
His youth was not auspicious.
Fucker'd best behave!

edna|3.16.07 @ 7:18PM|#

larry wins the thread.
his haiku tells a story
and with no miscounts!

|3.16.07 @ 8:14PM|#

The goodhair guvnah in tweed,
And the troublesome Tyrone he freed,
Got the fundies besotted,
Drugwar panties all wadded,
This all for a shag and some weed.

Goldwater Conservative|3.17.07 @ 12:20AM|#

I'm initiating force against the next person who posts a haiku.

|3.17.07 @ 12:46AM|#

maybe smoking weed
actually helped this guy quell
dangerous motives

|3.17.07 @ 12:54PM|#

Why the ufck does Tyrone Green go free when Richard Paey is still locked up?

World's gone crazy

|3.19.07 @ 4:53PM|#

I just noticed that Tyrone Green has become Tyrone Brown.

Lettuce sometimes does this too.