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| Larry Hiveley |  |
191/2 Years Marijuana Conspiracy
I am currently serving a nineteen-and-a-half year sentence in a Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix, Arizona for a marijuana conspiracy. I am lucky in one aspect, my family is only fifteen minutes away and they visit often. Before my incarceration my wife, Kim, and my two stepchildren; Jamie, who is almost 20 and Jerome, who is 12, all lived together on a ten acre ranch. Here we raised quarter horses, Kim worked at a grocery store, and I was a welder. We were a family, something none of us had ever had before. Now my wife is a widow and my stepchildren are orphans of the drug war.
In July of 1994, I went to trial and was found guilty because of uncorroborated hearsay and uncorroborated testimony given by co-conspirators and government expert witnesses. Now my family struggles every day to survive and I struggle with not being there to provide for them. My wife has lost her job because of severe stress and the huge responsibility of being both a mother and father to Jamie and Jerome.
The Federal government took all but 1/3 of our ranch. My wife has had to save and borrow large amounts of money to buy the government out. She struggles to make the mortgage payment and pay other bills while raising two children. Jamie attends Northern Arizona University. She relies on grants/scholarships and financial aid to get her through school. While at school she works three jobs and when she is home on winter and summer breaks she works full time at a men's clothing store to make ends meet. Jerome is in middle school and desperately needs a father in his life.
I ask you - who is being punished? Who is doing time? The government says that I am, but my family also does time. They suffer, just as many other non-violent drug law violators families suffer. Taxpayers spend over $22,000 a year to keep me away from society for nineteen and a half years without chance of parole. By the time I am released, I will be 65 years old and taxpayers will have spent close to $429,000 to keep me locked away from those that I love. My stepchildren will be grown and will be ready to start, if not, have families of their own. My wife will have worked harder than ever to provide, and we will have missed out on some of the greatest years of our lives.
I am a first-time, nonviolent drug law violator who occupies a cell where a murderer, a rapist or child molester should sit. These criminals and other violent criminals are released into society everyday without serving half of their sentence. These criminals are often repeat criminals and again are released into society. Because of mandatory minimum sentencing I will serve nineteen and half years for marijuana. I have not hurt nor killed anyone, but if I had, I would be done serving time by now.
America is not winning the "War on Drugs," it is simply losing and in the process, creating huge amounts of stress, anger, and distrust toward the government - not to mention families torn apart.
Jamie wrote this essay for her English class, please don't miss it.
See Federal Judge Myron Bright's dissenting opinion in this case.
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