Lacy Jermaine Hutchins Seeks Public Support to Get a Lawyer to Appeal His Life with Parole Sentence

Across America today, hundreds of thousands of incarcerated individuals are sentenced to life imprisonment, and some have the opportunity to be released on parole after serving a specific number of years while so many others have no chance of ever getting out at all. Quite a number of currently incarcerated individuals are also in the process of appealing their cases due to injustice or wrongful imprisonment. The latter is considered a miscarriage of justice, which is where a person is convicted and punished for a crime he did not do. Such is the sad plight of Lacy Jermaine Hutchins, who is now seeking public support to fund a lawyer, who he hopes can turn his case around as he believes he is innocent.

Currently detained at the Telfair State Prison in Georgia, Lacy Jermaine Hutchins strongly believes that the justice system failed him miserably. He associates this failure in the system to several factors, including systemic racism, which is also known to be deeply embedded in laws and regulations, resulting in discrimination in criminal justice. Realistically speaking, Lacy is one of the countless others who are suffering from the same plight. But he is more determined than many people give him credit for, and he wants his freedom back.

“I just want my freedom back and to live without worrying about getting harassed by law enforcement agencies because they think or feel like I’m doing something wrong in the community,” Lacy said.

Lacy was convicted for two different drug cases, drugs which he claims were not in his possession or anywhere near him during the arrest. He also claims to have never been given a fair trial right from the beginning, and this is something he hopes to change not just for himself but for many others who have been and may be future victims of this unjust practice. At present, he has gotten 1,192 signatures of support to his Change.org petition, and he is targeting a total of 1,500 to get the ball rolling.

According to a study by The Sentencing Project, there were 161,957 people serving life sentences as of 2016, which translates to one in every nine individuals in prison. Another 44,311 individuals are serving a virtual life sentence or sentences with a term of years that exceed an individual’s natural life expectancy. The total back in 2016 reached a staggering 206,268 and may be considerably higher after five years. The same study reveals that the number of people serving life sentences has quadrupled since 1984. Unfortunately, the continuing increase of inmates in the life without parole (LWOP) population has clearly overtaken the observable changes in the life with parole (LWP) population.

The fact that nearly half or 48.3% of the people serving life and virtual life sentences are African Americans is worthy of attention. This number translates to one in every five African American inmates. Sadly, almost 12,000 individuals have been sentenced to life or virtual life imprisonment for crimes they committed as juveniles. Of these juvenile offenders, 2,300 were sentenced to life without parole. Overall, more than 17,000 people with an LWP, LWOP, or virtual life sentence have been convicted of committing nonviolent crimes.

In 2016, the state of California had the highest number of life and virtual life prisoners, reaching 40,691. It was followed by the state of Louisiana with 11,238 people, New York with 9,8889, Alabama with 6,104, and Maryland with 4,158.

Lacy Jermaine Hutchins is fighting the fight of his life and hopes to prove that there is still hope in the country’s justice system. It may be an uphill battle, but he is resolved to never back down from the fight that will return his freedom.

Get to know more about Lacy Jermaine Hutchins by visiting his website.