Missouri man released after 11 years in prison for cannabis possession

A Missouri man is finally free after serving over a pound of marijuana behind bars for 11 years.

On Thursday, Robert Franklin was released from the Moberly Correctional Center in Randolph County, Missouri – reducing his 22-year sentence.

In May, Franklin’s verdict was officially overturned by Missouri Governor Mike Parsons.

“I breathe free air,” said Franklin on Thursday, as quoted by the local television station KOMU. “It’s great. I’m excited. I’m excited. I have to hug my daughter.”

For Franklin, it is the culmination of a fight that has spanned most of the last decade.

In April, the Riverfront Times portrayed Franklin, describing how, in February 2007, he “threw a pound stone of marijuana out of his SUV window with two Missouri Highway Patrol soldiers close behind.”

After Franklin’s 22-year prison sentence, the publication found that “Missouri has legalized medical cannabis and abolished its strict, mandatory three-stroke minimum penalty law that ensures that repeat drug offenders – even those convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses like Franklin – with a minimum of 10 years in prison with no possibility of parole. “

“I’ve jailed all of my 30s,” Franklin told the Riverfront Times in a prison phone interview at the time. “And it’s stressful to know that people get out who were in jail by the same law, but they got caught with more than me.”

Franklin and his supporters may have been discouraged that Parsons, a Republican serving his first full term as governor of Missouri, had previously sentenced eight drug sentences, none of which were cannabis-related.

However, within a week of Franklin’s Riverfront Times profile being posted, everything changed. On May 5, Parsons granted 13 pardons and one commutation – the latter, of course, reserved for Franklin, who becomes the ninth drug offender to be pardoned by Parsons and the first to serve a sentence on a marijuana offense.

“Don’t give up the fight,” Franklin said, as quoted by KOMU. “Keep fighting no matter what they throw at you. Go ahead and be an advocate for yourself. “

Missouri has a history of harsh penalties for pot

It wasn’t just Parsons who was slow to pardon marijuana offenders. It was six years before Franklin that a Missouri governor commuted a pot-related sentence. In 2015, then-Missouri Governor Jay Nixon commuted the life sentence of Jeffrey Mizanskey, who had spent the last 20 years behind bars at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.

Mizanskey was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 1994, making him the only Missouri inmate to serve a life sentence for a cannabis offense only. His case sparked outrage and lawyer condemnation, which eventually led to Nixon’s pardon for Mizanskey, who was 60 at the time of his release.

In an interview with the Riverfront Times in April, Mizanskey reflected on the profound changes in attitudes and laws surrounding marijuana in the United States.

“Well what I would like to see is full federal legalization, or at least decriminalization,” he said. “But people are accepting it now, they see that the heavens haven’t fallen since legalization, it’s not as bad as we’ve all been told. You will find out how helpful it is to people who really need it because of their illnesses. I think it’s a big step. It’s going to help a lot of our people – heck, it’s going to help my arthritis that I have. And that’s great. But I think we still have a long way to go. “

“It seems like we’re taking three or four steps forward and a step or two back, but we get there,” added Mizanskey. “I think there is a lot more cannabis and hemp can give us. People are finally waking up and I think it will take time. I am 67 years old. I hope I’m still here when it happens, but I think it’s on the way. “