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About the jesse webster story was the fact that he was able to the lawyer was able to get the federal judge, who sentenced webster to life in prison to write a letter to the office of the pardon attorney, asking them and supporting jesse webster s plea to be released. as well as to the prosecutors who worked on the case. tell me about how this clemency took place involved in the prosecution. tell me about that. i beg your pardon? talk me through the petition with clemency with president obama. how did that come about? okay. so jesse webster had been trying to get out of prison for a while. and he had as his last plea, he thought he could actually write a clemency petition. he ran into the lawyer, jessica ring-emerson, and she was able to put together a clemency petition. this was before the ....
Many for nonviolent drug crimes. this man is featured in the chicago sun times. mary mitchell authored the series and joins us now. thank you very much for joining us. this is some great reporting. let s start with the story of jesse webster, recently released from prison after serving more than 21 years. what got him there in the first place? well, what got him there was drug dealing. he admits that, he was selling drugs. he got into the drug business as a young boy. not even in high school. he came from a poor family, and a distressed neighborhood. and to make ends meet, he went out and shoveled snow, washed cars, carried groceries, and sold drugs on the corner. but then how did he end up with such a harsh sentence? what did he do? okay, so the problem here was that it wasn t the fact he was just selling drugs. because he admits that. ....
But it was a prosecution in chicago where prosecutors were looking to get something on the gangster disciples and basically larry hoover. they found out, through sources, thse webster was selling drugs, was a middle person in drug deals involving the gangster disciples. they wanted jesse webster to wear a wire. he refused to wear a wire because he said the feds could not protect his family. life in prison. but that s exactly what happened. and it happened without the feds bringing even a speck of cocaine into the courtroom. it s interesting. one of the things you point out is that the judge in this case actually had no choice in a life term. but what did he think about it? well, he thought it was absurd. he thought it was too high. and what i found fascinating ....