Thursday, October 16, 2014
Political Mayhem Thursday: Mercy for Robert Shipp
One of the great joys of my work lately has been working with my students on clemency petitions. One of my wonderful students, Vince Gmerek, prepared an excellent petition for a deserving client named Robert Shipp.
Mr. Shipp has another great advocate in his corner: his sister, Veda Ajamu. She has started a petition on We The People, and here is how she described the case:
In 1993, at the age of 20, Robert Shipp was indicted in a crack conspiracy. In 1994, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He was involved in the conspiracy for 5 months. This was Robert’s first drug offense. The Judge that sentenced Robert repeatedly objected to the sentence that he was forced to give Robert based on the Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Guidelines. A Clemency application was filed for Robert, July 2013. Clemencyreport.org has ranked Robert #12 among the top 25 prisoners nationwide deserving immediate freedom. Robert has received over 142,800 signatures on his change.org petition. Robert has been in prison 21 years now. He does not deserve to die in prison for 5 months involvement in a nonviolent drug conspiracy at 20 years old.
I'd urge you to go over to We The People and sign Robert's petition.
