Man thought to be longest-serving nonviolent marijuana prisoner is released
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A 71-year-old Florida inmate was released Tuesday after serving 31 years of a 90-year prison sentence for trafficking marijuana.
The inmate, Richard DeLisi, is thought to be the longest-serving prisoner imprisoned on a nonviolent marijuana charge, according to the Last Prisoner Project. Its pro bono lawyers had represented DeLisi in his bid for freedom.
While DeLisi was in prison, his wife died, one of his sons died from an overdose, and his daughter was in a serious car crash, according to the Associated Press. But after leaving prison in Palm Beach County, Florida, DeLisi was grateful and unresentful, the AP reports.
“Prison changed me. I never really knew who God was, and now I know and it changed the way I talk to people and treat people,” he told the AP.
He learned how to read and write in prison and became a mentor to other inmates.
DeLisi was convicted on charges of racketeering, trafficking and conspiracy for smuggling more than 100 pounds of marijuana into Florida from Colombia, CNN reports.
He had been scheduled for release in June 2022, according to the Ledger, but the date was moved up after an error was discovered that affected release credits, a corrections spokesperson told CNN.
