N.Y. Rockefeller Inmate Freed January 25, 2005
News Summary
A man imprisoned for 19 years under New York's harsh Rockefeller-era drug laws has been freed as the result of recent reforms, Newsday reported Jan. 21.In the first case resulting from legislation passed in the fall, Ivan Wright, 69, was freed from state prison after serving 19 years of the 25-years-to-life sentence imposed upon him in 1987 for selling cocaine to an undercover police officer.
Wright received the tough sentence despite selling relatively minor amounts of cocaine. The Brooklyn district attorney's office supported his bid for freedom.
The new state law allows prisoners originally sentenced to A-1 drug charges -- which carried the 25-years-to-life penalty -- to ask to be resentenced. Wright was freed by the same judge who had sentenced him in 1987.
"He certainly shouldn't have been spending the rest of his life in jail," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said. "It was the just thing to do."
COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE: