Update (October 19, 2020): A 63-year-old Black Louisiana man has been granted parole after spending 24 years in a maximum security prison after hedge clippers theft led to a life sentence under the habitual offenders law.

Fair Wayne Bryant, who spent many years fighting against his life sentence, walked out of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on Thursday, The Washington Post reported. 

With a 3-0 vote, The Louisiana Committee on Parole freed the incarcerated man, who was serving time after three previous convictions turned a theft charge into a life sentence. Tony Marabella, one of the board members who voted to grant parole, shared a sentimental message with Bryant after making his decision. 

“There’s no question in my mind that your heart and head are in the right place,” Marabella said, according to The Advocate. “We just want you to remain clean and sober. We don’t want you to come back.”

Bryant, who has undergone substance abuse counseling at Angola, will still be required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The Louisiana man expressed gratitude for the help he received in prison.

“That made me aware that I did have a problem with drugs and that I needed some help,” he told the board, speaking via video conference from Angola. “I’ve had 24 years to recognize that problem and be in constant conversation with the Lord to help me with that problem.”

Two months earlier, the Louisiana Supreme Court denied Bryant’s request to review his life sentence, as Blavity previously reported. While five judges on the Supreme Court agreed to decline the appeal, one abstained and another dissented.

"This man's life sentence for a failed attempt to steal a set of three hedge clippers is grossly out of proportion to the crime and serves no legitimate penal purpose," wrote Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, who is the only Black justice and only woman on the court.

Johnson said the sentence is a modern manifestation of "pig laws" from the Reconstruction era, which "criminalized recently emancipated African American citizens by introducing extreme sentences for petty theft associated with poverty."

The Chief Justice compared the slavery-era laws to Louisiana’s habitual offender laws, which impose a severe sentence to somebody who repeatedly commits petty crimes. Johnson also highlighted the financial impact of such laws, saying Bryant has cost Louisiana taxpayers over $500,000 during his 23 years in prison.

Looking at Bryant’s history, the Chief Justice said each one of his crimes was an effort to steal something, but the sentence was excessive and disproportionate to the offense.

“Such petty theft is frequently driven by the ravages of poverty or addiction, and often both," she wrote in her dissent. "It is cruel and unusual to impose a sentence of life in prison at hard labor for the criminal behavior which is most often caused by poverty or addiction."

According to The Lens, about 80% of the people in Louisiana who have been imprisoned because of habitual offender laws are Black. Hoping to bring awareness to such issues of disparity, Johnson wrote a letter to judges throughout the state after the killing of George Floyd.

“As judges, lawyers, legislators, and law enforcement officials, we have real power to change the African American community’s lived experience of the legal system,” she wrote. “But we can only accomplish it by honestly and objectively examining our past in order to understand our present, and then critically examining our present in order to create a better future.”

Bryant will now get help from the Louisiana Parole Project, an organization which helps formerly incarcerated people as they transition to freedom.

“Our organization believes in Mr. Bryant and we are committed to helping him rebuild his life,” Andrew Hundley, the group’s executive director, told The Post. “Fair spent nearly 24 years in prison. His case reminds us that extreme prison sentences do not benefit society.”

Original story (August 7, 2020): A Black Louisiana man is facing overly harsh punishment after trying to steal hedge clippers more than 20 years ago.

Fair Wayne Bryant, who was convicted to life in prison for the attempted theft attempt in 1997, experienced another setback last week when the Louisiana Supreme Court declined to overturn his sentence, CNN reported. 

Bryant's attorney, Peggy Sullivan, appealed the case in 2018, saying "his life sentence is unconstitutionally harsh and excessive." But the court, which is made up almost exclusively of white and male justices, upheld the ruling after factoring in the criminal history of the 62-year-old.

According to the justices, Bryant's background includes attempted armed robbery, possession of stolen things, attempted forgery of a check worth $150 and simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling. All of those charges were handed down before the life-sentence conviction in 1997. Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, who is the only Black justice and only woman on the court, disagreed with the decision. Five other judges agreed to decline the appeal, while one abstained. 

"This man's life sentence for a failed attempt to steal a set of three hedge clippers is grossly out of proportion to the crime and serves no legitimate penal purpose," Johnson wrote.

The lone dissenter described the sentence as a "modern manifestation" of "pig laws" from the Reconstruction era, which "criminalized recently emancipated African American citizens by introducing extreme sentences for petty theft associated with poverty."

Johnson said those same laws have now taken the form of Louisiana’s habitual offender laws, which make it possible to give a harsh sentence to somebody who repeatedly commits petty crimes. In Louisiana, about 80% of the people who have been imprisoned because of habitual offender laws are Black, The Lens reported. 

The lone Black judge in the court added that Bryant has cost Louisiana taxpayers over $500,000 during his 23 years in prison.

"If he lives another 20 years, Louisiana taxpayers will have paid almost one million dollars to punish Mr. Bryant for his failed effort to steal a set of hedge clippers," the judge wrote.

Johnson is the second Black woman to serve as a judge in the Louisiana Supreme Court, NPR reported. She is also the court's first Black chief justice. 

The trailblazing judge said Bryant's history of petty crimes shouldn't result in a life sentence.

"Each of these crimes was an effort to steal something. Such petty theft is frequently driven by the ravages of poverty or addiction, and often both," she wrote in her dissent. "It is cruel and unusual to impose a sentence of life in prison at hard labor for the criminal behavior which is most often caused by poverty or addiction."

According to The Lens, the 62-year-old is imprisoned at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, which is the largest maximum-security prison in the country and the site of a former slave plantation.

"The sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed," Johnson wrote. 

Chief Justice Bernette JohnsonFair Wayne Bryanthabitual-offender-lawsLouisiana-State-Penitentiary-at-Angola