Johnathon Gaines
My name is Johnathon Gaines #39343-018 and I currently reside in Pollock, LA, USP (United States Penitentiary. And I am serving a 711 months or 59 year federal prison sentence. My crime was armed bank robbery of which I was sentenced to 25 years for the bank robberies, 2 years for obstruction of justice, and 32 years for 924(c).
I was given this death sentence when I was 22 years old. I’m 36 now and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel. No chance for parole and no chance of having my sentence reduced as long as the 924(c) stacking clause stands.
The 924(c) stacking clause is a renegade recidivism provision that is being erroneously used by prosecutors around thhe country to punish first time gun offenders; mainly those who refuse to cooperate. This statue is being used as if the offender was a repeat offender of the 924(c) gun provision. This statue is an interpretation of the law that Congress never intended when 924(c) was enacted in 1968.I’ve joined others who suffer from the same injustice in the fight against the application and the present interpretation of this unlawful and unjust law. This is a law that has been described by the US SentencingCommission as well as judges and prosecutors around the country as excessively severe and unjust. As ina recent decision by one Federal Judge, John Gleeson, in Brooklyn and a United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Mrs. Loretta Lynch (now the US Attorney General); to free a man from a 57 year sentence has brought to light two similar cases in Montana. It was found that in each of these cases both judge and prosecutor agreed on one thing; the sentence being handed down under the 924(c) stacking provision is grotesquely severe.
It is my hope that you will join the fight to help abolish this unjust minimum mandatory sentencing provision, as well as helping to expose the sentence reductions of a few while the vast majority of us continue to suffer and languish under the burden of this miscarriage of justice. Please join MERCY ME 924(c) in their efforts to help set us free.
I was given this death sentence when I was 22 years old. I’m 36 now and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel. No chance for parole and no chance of having my sentence reduced as long as the 924(c) stacking clause stands.
The 924(c) stacking clause is a renegade recidivism provision that is being erroneously used by prosecutors around thhe country to punish first time gun offenders; mainly those who refuse to cooperate. This statue is being used as if the offender was a repeat offender of the 924(c) gun provision. This statue is an interpretation of the law that Congress never intended when 924(c) was enacted in 1968.I’ve joined others who suffer from the same injustice in the fight against the application and the present interpretation of this unlawful and unjust law. This is a law that has been described by the US SentencingCommission as well as judges and prosecutors around the country as excessively severe and unjust. As ina recent decision by one Federal Judge, John Gleeson, in Brooklyn and a United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Mrs. Loretta Lynch (now the US Attorney General); to free a man from a 57 year sentence has brought to light two similar cases in Montana. It was found that in each of these cases both judge and prosecutor agreed on one thing; the sentence being handed down under the 924(c) stacking provision is grotesquely severe.
It is my hope that you will join the fight to help abolish this unjust minimum mandatory sentencing provision, as well as helping to expose the sentence reductions of a few while the vast majority of us continue to suffer and languish under the burden of this miscarriage of justice. Please join MERCY ME 924(c) in their efforts to help set us free.
