Mackinac Center: Conservatives and Liberals Rally Support for Repealing Mandatory Life Sentences in Michigan
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Michigan repealed most of its mandatory drug minimum sentencing laws in the early 2000s. Now Morse and a coalition of like-minded advocates are urging lawmakers to finish the job. A number of organizations have called for ending mandatory life without parole sentences for drug offenders. They include Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending, Prison Fellowship, FreedomWorks, Right on Crime, Americans for Tax Reform, Reason and U.S. Justice Action Network. These stakeholders have spoken out in support of two bills that would repeal a mandatory sentence of life without parole for a second conviction of possessing small amounts of certain illegal drugs. The bills would change the punishment for a second conviction from a sentence of mandatory life imprisonment without parole to one that is double the punishment for a first offense.