Corvain Cooper (@40tonsbrand) is our next highlight in the ILLICIT Freedoms Campaign, which aims to share the stories of prisoners from the war on cannabis.After a Lakers game in 2009, Corvain was pulled over driving his friends home where he admitted to 1lb of marijuana and a bottle of codeine in the trunk of his car. These charges, Corvain’s first and second drug priors, would turn out to be the nails in his coffin. Later in 2013, Corvain was arrested in California, then shipped and charged along with fifty other people to Charlotte, North Carolina for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 1000kg of marijuana. “The indictment doesn’t match, none of these people hustled with each other, 90 percent of the people haven’t even spent one day in Charlotte,” says Corvain. 

Because of this, Corvain, Evelyn and Natalia made the decision to go to trial. After the one-week trial, it took the Mecklenburg County jury one hour to decide their fate, charging Corvain as if he were personally responsible for how much marijuana the network might have distributed over its entire history of operation, 40 tons. The third strike rule landed him a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Conspiracy charges allow prosecutors to charge everyone involved in a drug supply operation for the same conduct, regardless of their individual role. “When they led him into the courtroom,” Patrick Megaro, Corvain’s lawyer said, “the judge said on the record that he was extraordinarily uncomfortable with giving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, to a 34-year-old man with children in a case like this.” However, Corvain was sentenced just the same. Corvain advocated and advertised for his clemency, finally reaching President Trump after 8 years behind bars and $290,394 of taxpayer money. Releasing Corvain saved taxpayers over $725,000, assuming he would have remained alive behind bars for another 20 years.  “Ever since I’ve been home I’ve been doing the best I can to enlighten people to get their record expunged.” He said, “If I had had my record expunged they wouldn't have been able to charge me with life on the three strikes.”

After one week of fighting, it took the Mecklenburg County jury one hour to decide their fate, charging Corvain as if he were personally responsible for how much marijuana the network might have distributed over its entire history of operation, 40 tons. Corvain remembers, “It was hard to call your mom or kids and tell them you’re never coming home; You’re gonna die in prison,” he says, “but I never used those words, I always said I’m coming home. This is just a minor setback for a major comeback.” Today, one of every five Black men in prison is serving a life sentence. Black male offenders receive sentences on average 19.1 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders. An increase in the proportion of white males in the jury pool results in a significant increase in the conviction rate for black defendants, and a neutral to negative effect for white defendants, according to a study out of Wake Forest University. Most Recently, the North Carolina Supreme Court banned the state from reinstating the death sentence on a Black man after a North Carolina judge found that his trial was influenced by racial discrimination in the jury. At the original trial, the prosecution removed half of qualified Black jurors from serving — but only 15% of white jurors.

Despite roughly equal usage rates, Black people are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana.

Corvain was relentless in spirit. He says, “If you look at any of my prison pictures I always have my head up high. I’ve read over 1000 books, when else would I have the time to do that, I just wrote 3 or 4 books; My book series is coming out soon called “Look Into My Eyes.”  Corvain says, “Bet on yourself. and just keep pushin.” Corvain was low in the hierarchy of the marijuana operation, but conspiracy charges allow prosecutors to charge everyone involved in a drug supply operation for the same conduct, regardless of their individual role. The prosecutor offered Corvain a plea deal of 10 to 20 years instead of his life sentence if he agreed to testify against others. People with minor roles in drug supply operations are often threatened with severe sentences for conspiracy charges if they do not testify.  Corvain received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. According to the recently released Uniform Crime Report from the FBI, 9% more people were arrested for cannabis in 2019 than for all violent crimes put together the same year. Police across America make a marijuana-related arrest every 58 seconds, according to @natlnorml , at a time when the overwhelming majority of Americans want cannabis to be legal and regulated. “It is an outrage that many police departments across the country continue to waste tax dollars and limited law enforcement resources.” says the NORML Executive Director. “It’s the level of prison you have to go to when you have a life sentence,” says Corvain, “I’ve seen 8 murders, 7 suicides, so many attempts and riots. At pollock we were locked down for 2-3 years straight, maybe coming up for one month. One argument and the whole system locks down so you can't get any visits.” Corvain remembers missing daddy daughter dances when they were 15 and 16 years old, being on lockdown, “so you can’t even call anybody, missing Christmases, people in there so depressed that they don’t even give a f*ck that it’s Christmas.” He says, “After you overcome all this, you get to the day of ‘Damn, I gotta depend on Trump to get out of here.’”

“When you’re waiting on a clemency, it’s a lottery ticket, so if you don’t get it, you have to wait for when [the next president] leaves,” says Corvain (@40tonsbrand ) as he remembers waiting, trying not to feel the weight of Trump’s last night in office as presidential pardons were announced, “It’s 11pm and I have to go to sleep so I say ‘F*ck it, I’m not getting it.’” There are 40,000 people incarcerated for cannabis according to the 2004 Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) Survey of Prison Inmates. That was the last time data about specific drug convictions was publicly released. Since 2010, BJS has had its budget cut 37%, now taking the Bureau an average of seven years to publish data collected in their Survey of Prison Inmates. Enforcing marijuana laws costs us about $3.6 billion a year. Data allows the people fighting for recognition to be seen. "They've put people in cages and forgotten about them. We need data to affirm [incarcerated people's experiences]," @drugpolicyalliance 's Kassandra Frederique says. It is a powerful tool in the effort to repair the damage left by the War on Drugs—we just need more of it. The next morning, as Trump leaves the White House in his helicopter, Corvain showers and “suits up” his mind for the next leg in his journey. He is surprised when the counselor on site walks to his cell and tells Corvain he has 5 minutes to pack up and go. He remarks, “There’s no feeling that can match it. I broke down and cried.” There are 4 types of clemency. Pardon and Amnesty are essentially identical in practical effect, with the principal distinction between the two being that amnesty typically "is extended to whole classes or communities,” instead of individuals. 

Currently, there are more than 17,000 clemency applications pending before the Department of Justice. Corvain reflects, “Sometimes you got a letter..from someone you don’t even know. You couldn’t even get your mom to do this; Some people can’t even get their..friends to do this. This is a person that just believes in just the rights of the world and they just feel this is unjust.” In his recording you can listen to by clicking the link in our bio, Corvain shouts out to many groups including @candoclemency @lastprisonerproject @buriedaliveproject @marijuanamattersdc “and all the groups that participated in trying to bring a person back from death.” Cooper was granted clemency in 2021 by then-President Donald Trump after serving more than 8 years behind bars, costing taxpayers $290,394.