There has been much talk since the news that President Trump commuted the federal sentence of our brother, Larry Hoover, who is not available for release because he must serve time for conviction in the state of Illinois.
We should thank Mr. Trump for his action, whatever his motivation, as he did something that neither Democratic presidents Joe Biden nor Barack Obama did. We can be grateful for what the decision means to Brother Larry, his family, and all those who have worked for decades for his release.
If the governor of Illinois, Democrat JB Pritzker, acts in similar ways, we can see a Black man released from prison who can help us deal with the problem of violence and criminality among us, and help to redirect youth.
“Larry Hoover is not in prison because he was such a bad man; he’s in prison because he was so good (at organizing) young Black people—and in that, they were afraid of him. So he is in prison, and they don’t want to let him out; but soon they’ll have to let him out.
He deserves to be out here with us helping to clean up our communities, and as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, ‘Make where we live a safe, clean, successful community.’
That’s within our power to do,” said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, speaking September 14, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. His message was webcast to street organizations who gathered together in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville, S.C.
“What is a ‘political prisoner?’ According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a ‘political prisoner’ is ‘a person who has been imprisoned for holding or advocating dissenting political views,’” the Minister stated during “The Time and What Must Be Done,” in Part 24 of his 58-week lecture series. He spoke June 22, 2013.
He designated Larry Hoover as a political prisoner. “After he changed that name to mean Growth and Development, he then started pushing members of the Gangster Disciples into school to get a high school education, and go on to do constructive things.
“He was more dangerous doing that than selling drugs—so you arrested him while he was in prison, and gave him six life terms! Six! You never intend for my brother to get out of prison!
“You did the same to Chief Malik Ka’bah, a.k.a. ‘Jeff Fort’ of the Blackstone Rangers (‘Black P. Stone Nation.’) They’re all in the same prison in Florence, Colorado, maximum security; in prison 23 hours a day, with only 1 hour out. But you have not been able to break them;
Jamil Al-Amin is there because he fights for the Liberation of Black people, and he fights for Islam! Soon, you will be released; otherwise, you would make God and His prophets ‘liars.’ The ‘captives’ that are bound will eventually be set free,” said Minister Farrakhan.
The Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law announced on May 29 that Brother Larry had been granted clemency after serving over 52 years in prison.
“Hoover, now 74 years old, was convicted of drug offenses that resulted in multiple life sentences in Federal Prison. He has spent the last thirty years at the ADX Detention Facility in Florence, Colorado, known as the harshest ‘supermax’ federal prison in the country. He has been in solitary confinement for more than two decades.
“Mr. Hoover worked tirelessly to transform his life. Despite the lack of programming available to inmates at ADX Florence, a supermax prison, he overcame his disability and taught himself how to read, obtained his GED, and enrolled in numerous courses including science, history, and health. Mr. Hoover has matured intellectually and socially and has developed a passion for empowering at-risk youth.
“Mr. Hoover’s mission in life is to teach at-risk youth the dangers of gangs and street life. He has long ago denounced gangs and his prior affiliation in gang activity. He will be a huge asset to his community moving forward.”
“Nearly 30 years ago, Larry Hoover received several life sentences on drug offenses. His original punishment became vastly disproportionate to that of his co-defendants, two of whom had their life sentences reduced to just 25 years,” added Joshua Dubin, executive director of the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice. “Mr. Hoover’s clemency is overdue, and, despite his life sentence, he never lost hope.”
Our sister, Alice Marie Johnson was released from prison after President Trump commuted her sentence on June 6, 2018, and on August 8, 2020, he granted her a full pardon. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a non-violent drug offense.
Ms. Johnson is now Mr. Trump’s pardon czar, looking at the cases of those locked down in federal prisons.
What was her role in Brother Larry’s commutation and is there someone better to look at presidential pardons and commutations? The president has thrown out the old system where the Justice Department controlled such recommendations. That’s a good thing.
Studies have shown racial disparity in presidential pardons, and commutations with Whites much more likely to receive these forms of clemency compared to non-Whites and especially Black people.
According to a ProPublica-Washington Post story published in 2011, “Blacks had the poorest chance of receiving the president’s ultimate act of mercy.”
They reported in 2011 that President Obama, at the time, had pardoned 22 people, two of them non-White, and continued relying on the Justice Department pardon office.
“From 2001 to 2008, (President George W. Bush) issued decisions in 1,918 pardon cases sent to him by the Justice Department, most involving nonviolent drug or financial crimes. He pardoned 189 people—all but 13 of whom were White. Seven pardons went to blacks, four to Hispanics, one to an Asian and one to a Native American,” they noted.
“A Black, first-time drug offender—a Vietnam veteran who got probation in South Carolina for possessing 1.1 grams of crack—was turned down. A White, fourth-time drug offender who did prison time for selling 1,050 grams of methamphetamine was pardoned,” the investigation discovered.
ProPublica and the Post reported that all of the drug offenders forgiven during the Bush administration at the pardon attorney’s recommendation—34 of them—were White.
“When the effects of those factors and others were controlled using statistical methods, however, race emerged as one of the strongest predictors of a pardon,” the report noted. “None of the 62 African Americans in the random sample received a pardon,” the ProPublica-Post reporting continued.
It’s time to free Larry Hoover.
—Naba’a Muhammad,
editor-in-chief, The Final Call