Lee Carroll Brooker is a 76-year old disabled American army veteran from Cottonwood, Alabama who was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of marijuana possession in 2014.
Contents
Life sentence
In 2011, Brooker was arrested and charged with trafficking marijuana after police visiting his home in Cottonwood for unrelated reasons noticed he was growing marijuana behind his house. In October 2014, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole by a judge in Houston County, Alabama. He was sentenced under Alabama's mandatory minimum laws, which dictate that someone caught possessing more than 2.2 pounds of a drug, and who had been convicted of certain felonies before that, must be sentenced to life in prison without parole. More than 30 years prior to being convicted of marijuana possession, Brooker had been convicted of armed robbery in Florida for holding up multiple liquor stores. The 34 plants weighed a total of 2.85 pounds although his lawyer argued the usable amount was less than the 2.2 pound threshold. His son, Darren Lee Brooker, was found guilty of trafficking marijuana in 2013. But he received a reverse split sentence in front of Circuit Court Judge Michael Conaway, which involved a 10-year sentence with Brooker serving five years probation first. Attorney Derek Yarbrough, who represented the younger Brooker, said if his client does well on probation the prison sentence will be suspended.
Reaction and aftermath
On September 11, 2015, the Alabama Supreme Court denied Brooker's request for a review of his sentence. Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, although he concurred with the Alabama Supreme Court's decision in this case, has since said that Brooker's life sentence was "excessive and unjustified". Brooker – represented by Bryan Stevenson – appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States which rejected Brooker's appeal, on April 18, 2016, a decision that let stand the Alabama Supreme Court's previous ruling.