UPDATE October 15, 2020
The Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole voted Thursday to release Fair Wayne Bryant, 63, records show. He walked out of prison later that day after serving more than 20 years at the state penitentiary in Angola, his attorney said.
Bryant will enter into a program in Baton Rouge that helps prisoners adjust to life after they are released. Eventually, he will be allowed to live with his brother in Shreveport.
Under the conditions of his parole, Bryant will have a curfew, must attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and complete community service.
The Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union called the board's decision to grant parole a "long-overdue victory."
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20 years for stealing hedge clippers. Please sign and share this petition
https://www.change.org/p/john-bel-edwards-get-fair-wayne-bryant-out-of-jail
Story below
Fair Wayne Bryant, 62, was convicted in 1997 for stealing the garden utensils and ordered to spend the remainder of his life in prison
The sentence was sanctioned under the state’s habitual offender law at the time
Bryant appealed the life sentence as unconstitutionally excessive, with his case eventually making its way up to Louisiana’s high court
The panel - five white men and one black woman - upheld the ruling 5-1
The lone dissenter was Supreme Court Justice Bernette Johnson, who called Bryant’s sentence ‘excessive and disproportionate to the offense’
Bryant, who is black, had four convictions prior to the 1997 incident that would secure his indefinite incarceration
In her dissent, Johnson called Bryant's sentence a ‘modern manifestation’ of ‘pig laws,’ which were created to 're-enslave African Americans'
If you think this is an excessive sentence, PLEASE sign this petition to Governor Jon Bel Edwards and then share it. Here's the link: https://www.change.org/p/john-bel-edwards-get-fair-wayne-bryant-out-of-jail
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