Fate Winslow is a free man after serving 12-years in prison for selling marijuana to an undercover police officer in Shreveport for 20-dollars. Winslow was sentenced to life in prison in 2008 because he was a fourth-time habitual offender. Innocence Project New Orleans Executive Director Jee Park said Winslow was released on the grounds of ineffective counsel.
“His then trial counsel did not object the life sentence, he never filed a motion to reconsider in front of the court, he never made any sort of argument as to why a life sentence was excessive,” said Park.
Park said IPNO has been working for about a year to overturn the sentence due to ineffective counsel and working with the District Attorney Caddo Parish.
“He should never have gotten a life sentence; he didn’t hurt anybody. If anything, he was a homeless man trying to make a couple of dollars back in September 2008,” said Park.
Winslow had three previous felony convictions, but they were nonviolent offenses. Park said the 53-year-old spent almost a quarter of his life behind bars for selling two bags of marijuana valued at 20 bucks…
“He didn’t make those twenty-dollars, the twenty dollars went to the dealer, he only had five dollars, he asked the officer after he made the purchase would you mind giving me five-dollars for food,” said Park.
Winslow is the third individual IPNO has freed this year through its new Unjust Punish Project. Park also noted after 12 years the crime Winslow was convicted of is no longer a crime in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
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