Razali Ahmad , 33 , of Gombak , Malaysia
Drug trafficker breaks down in court
THIRTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD Razali Ahmad wept in court yesterday, when the Shah Alam High Court sentenced him to the gallows after finding him guilty of drug trafficking.
Razali, a despatch rider, was charged under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act with trafficking 858 grams of cannabis at a house in Jalan Dewan Gombak Setia on Aug 6, 2003, at 5.45pm.
DEATH Penalty for DRUGS also here in USA
Any charge of drug trafficking carries a mandatory death sentence in Malaysia. 358 grams is only a little over 12 ounces of Marijuana. There might not be much we can do to save Razali but we can at least try to change our nations insane and unjust drug laws.
Unfortunately the failed War on Drugs has turned our own country into a "Gulag Filling Station". Think about the tragic case of George Martorano a 1ST Time Offender who was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to possession of 2,600 pounds of marijuana. He holds the sad honor of being the longest serving , non-violent criminal in United States history with about 25 years of imprisonment. The 57-year-old George Martorano has now been behind bars since 1982.
Martorano and Friends
These tragic drug war cases are a dime a dozen in the USA. I can literally rattle them off all day long by their names I'm haunted by it because the only thing worse than imprisoning people is Killing them. Indeed many people behind bars would prefer to be dead thats the sad reality. Petitions for the Legally Abused.
Our justice system is not only unequal but it's broken due solely to the failed war on drugs. The case of Weldon Angelos is very common in the USA where he received a 55 year mandatory minimum sentence in prison for small time marijuana charges yet in the past 6 years we have 120 people down in Texas who received probation for murder.
July 11, 2007
Creative Loafing Tampa (FL)
Second Life
Sentenced To Life For Drug Smuggling, George Martorano Spent Decades In Prison With No Hope For Release. Then John Flahive Answered His Call.
By Alex Pickett
Every holiday season, there's a tradition at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Central Florida, 20 miles south of Ocala. During the month of December, prison officials set up a large holiday backdrop painted with a Christmas tree, wreath and brick fireplace, partially concealing the grey cinderblock wall in a corner of the visiting room. Families and couples line up to have portraits taken with their incarcerated dads and husbands and sons. Smiles are plentiful, if a little hollow.
On a cloudless afternoon in December 2006, two men -- one in a plaid shirt and blue jeans, the other in prison-issued olive drab -- walk up for their turn. John Flahive, 50, glares at the camera, fierce and determined; the inmate, 57-year-old George Martorano, shorter and slightly stooped from a hernia, looks ahead with the weariness of a man who has spent the last 23 years of his life in prison. The two clasp hands.
For the other inmates and their families, the photos are an attempt to relive, if for just a few moments, past holidays spent together on the outside. But all Flahive and Martorano have ever known are the bonds forged in this sterile room, eating cheap food from the vending machines and sitting too long on uncomfortable chairs.
They're not family, exactly. Flahive, a former alcoholic and drug addict from St. Petersburg, met Martorano, a convicted drug smuggler from Philadelphia, through a chance 15-minute phone call. But the random encounter led to a six-year friendship and a joint effort to change the federal rules that keep an estimated 116,500 non-violent offenders behind bars for disproportionately long sentences.
That includes Martorano, who holds the unlucky title of longest-serving first-time non-violent offender in federal custody. And unless a legal brief convinces a Philadelphia judge his sentence was illegal or President Bush signs off on the clemency request now on his desk, Martorano will keep that title, spending the rest of his life in prison.