Demaryius Thomas’ Mom, Grandma Have To Root From Prison

[Gingersnap]

Demaryius Thomas’ Mom, Grandma Have To Root From Prison
January 30, 2014 4:48 PM


JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) - Demaryius Thomas‘ mother and grandmother will cheer for the Broncos receiver around the prison TV Sunday, both wearing No. 88 jerseys they crafted with strips of tape.
The two women have never seen Thomas play in person. He was 11 when police burst through the door of their home in Montrose, Ga., and arrested both in 1999. Police allowed Katina Smith to walk her son and his two younger sisters to the school bus one last time.

Now she’s at a minimum-security prison in Florida, sentenced to 20 years. Her mother, Minnie Pearl Thomas, who had two previous drug convictions, received two life sentences with the possibility for parole after 40 years.

Smith could have gotten a lighter sentence by testifying against her mother, but she refused.
They’ll watch Thomas play in his first Super Bowl Sunday, when he will be matched against Seahawks star cornerback Richard Sherman for much of the game.

“I think that drives me more to know that they’re there and they’re watching me,” Thomas said. “I try to go out there and play my best because they’re going to talk about it to the people in the jailhouse.”
Thomas’ father was serving in the Army and stationed in Kuwait when his mother and grandmother were arrested. He went to live with an aunt and uncle, Shirley and James Brown, a Baptist minister who lived six miles away.

Thomas, called “Bay-Bay” by his family, started working as an usher at the church and attending Bible study after track and basketball practices.

“Once I moved in with him, I told him I wanted to do something to stay off the streets and stay out of trouble, so I tried football,” Thomas said. “And it worked out for me.”

Good for him! Weird though, having your Mom and Grandma in prison.

CBS Denver

[Frostbit]

I read somewhere his mother was 12 1/2 years old when she got pregnant with him.

[Gingersnap]

I read somewhere his mother was 12 1/2 years old when she got pregnant with him.

Jeez, that can't be a good start.

[Michele]

The grandmother is doing two life terms in prison..for drugs?! People who kill someone don't get two life terms. There must be more to her story.

[Gingersnap]

Much information here: Daily Beast.

It appears that the women were guilty but also naive or dumb depending on how you see it. Very sad.

[Gramps]

Sweet Jumping Jesus....

Rozier had met Minnie Pearl Thomas when they both worked in a pants factory and ended up becoming her lover and moving into her trailer. He helped her to sell crack and powder cocaine when he was not off preaching at various churches or singing gospel on a local TV station.

[Novaheart]

The grandmother is doing two life terms in prison..for drugs?! People who kill someone don't get two life terms. There must be more to her story.

According to another article she got done in for federal offenses in trafficking and three time loser. I agree with you that it seems extreme for "just drugs" but I wonder if it's possible to deal on that scale and not be a dangerous gangster.

[phillygirl]

Pretty tough sentences. But at least for Grandma, she clearly didn't learn her lesson after the first 2 convictions.

[Adam]

There's a long article about this at The Daily Beast, with the whole thing as a plea to Obama to pardon at least the mother.

I'm not really buying what they're selling. Mama moved into the double-wide with Gramma, knowing what Gramma did and actively aiding and abetting her in doing so. They were peddling crack and powder cocaine, at a bare minimum (I rather doubt that these were the only things they were peddling, but instead just what they happened to get caught with), and it was a part of an inter-state drug ring, hence why it's federal time instate of state time.

The feds bent over backwards to try to give both of them a pretty sweet deal, but they insisted upon believing in their "keep law away" candles instead. My pity meter is about as low for them as it is for Marissa Alexander, which is somewhere in the negative infinity range.

[Novaheart]

There's a long article about this at The Daily Beast, with the whole thing as a plea to Obama to pardon at least the mother.

I'm not really buying what they're selling. Mama moved into the double-wide with Gramma, knowing what Gramma did and actively aiding and abetting her in doing so. They were peddling crack and powder cocaine, at a bare minimum (I rather doubt that these were the only things they were peddling, but instead just what they happened to get caught with), and it was a part of an inter-state drug ring, hence why it's federal time instate of state time.

The feds bent over backwards to try to give both of them a pretty sweet deal, but they insisted upon believing in their "keep law away" candles instead. My pity meter is about as low for them as it is for Marissa Alexander, which is somewhere in the negative infinity range.

Understandable, but at the same time the issue is a rational and proportional sentence relative to other crimes. If we send people to prison for life for drug dealing, and we send them to prison for life for 1st degree murder, then how do we justify that?

[Frostbit]

Understandable, but at the same time the issue is a rational and proportional sentence relative to other crimes. If we send people to prison for life for drug dealing, and we send them to prison for life for 1st degree murder, then how do we justify that?

Different prisons!! They are in minimum security and probably living better on our dime than they would figuring it out on their own on the outside.

[Adam]

Understandable, but at the same time the issue is a rational and proportional sentence relative to other crimes. If we send people to prison for life for drug dealing, and we send them to prison for life for 1st degree murder, then how do we justify that?

Mostly by the number of ruined lives in their wake. How many kids' lives were crashed and burned by age 14 because these two were peddling crack to them on the corner outside the schoolhouse? Lots. Lots and lots.

[Novaheart]

Mostly by the number of ruined lives in their wake. How many kids' lives were crashed and burned by age 14 because these two were peddling crack to them on the corner outside the schoolhouse? Lots. Lots and lots.

That's why I support an administrative review of the sentences of drug offenders with a target of the release of those with excessive sentences rather than an across the board reduction in sentence. However, such determinations as a matter of integrity cannot be based on speculation or even statistical likelihood; a person can only be deemed to have "crashed and burned by the age of 14" minor customers or employees when it has been established in court that such persons existed.

In the absence of the ability to do that, then I would support an across the board house cleaning in the prisons and jails either through amnesty or a mass probation/parole effort to make an attempt to start fresh and ensure that only serious drug offenders (with violence or crimes against minors) are given severe sentences.

[Adam]

That's why I support an administrative review of the sentences of drug offenders with a target of the release of those with excessive sentences rather than an across the board reduction in sentence. However, such determinations as a matter of integrity cannot be based on speculation or even statistical likelihood; a person can only be deemed to have "crashed and burned by the age of 14" minor customers or employees when it has been established in court that such persons existed.

In the absence of the ability to do that, then I would support an across the board house cleaning in the prisons and jails either through amnesty or a mass probation/parole effort to make an attempt to start fresh and ensure that only serious drug offenders (with violence or crimes against minors) are given severe sentences.

There was already a review of their sentences. It happened, unsurprisingly, at sentencing. The government doesn't need to come along and rescue these people from the stupidity of believing that a candle was going to "keep law away."


That having been said, I'm still in favor of eliminating the ONDCP, the DEA, and pretty much all federal drug laws other than regulating and policing importation of illicit drugs from other countries. I would rather have the feds out of it with the exception of a law basically saying that one cannot transport drugs across state lines when the drug in question is not legal in that state. Sort of a Mann Act for drugs, if you will. Leave all the rest of it up to the states.