A coalition of artists, athletes, and lawmakers are pleading with President Biden to grant clemency to a rapper that is facing up to eight years in federal prison for a non-violent marijuana offense.

Rappers Drake, Killer Mike, and Meet Mill are among the coalition who have sent a letter to the President that was led by Weldon Angelos.

Angelos himself had received a pardon for his own marijuana related conviction from former President Doanld Trump.

The letter is for a case for clemency for Terrell Davis, also known as Ralo, who was arrested for cannabis distribution in 2018.

“I’m confident that President Biden will intervene and end this hypocrisy,” Angelos told Marijuana Moment. “In our communication with White House officials, there seems to be an interest in doing something with regard to marijuana cases specifically.”

In the letter to Biden about Ralo, who has been incarcerated for three years but has not yet been sentenced, the coalition wrote, “our nation’s view of cannabis has evolved, and it is indefensible to incarcerate citizens based on the unduly harsh attitudes of past generations.”

The rapper “now faces over 8 years in prison for violating the same federal statute that many entrepreneurs and corporations violate every day in 36 states across the country, who are not subject to federal prosecution,” the letter reads.

“However, despite this nationwide shift in attitude towards marijuana, there tends to lack any real avenue of relief for those who are still serving lengthy federal prison terms for selling cannabis,” the group said in the letter. “Given the gridlock in Congress and the imperative of freedom, clemency is the right tool to fix this problem.”

Angelos told Marijuana Moment that this is part of a larger “effort to convince President Biden to issue a categorical pardon that would apply to anyone still serving federal prison time for marijuana.”

“It’s unjust that our federal system turns a blind eye to the wealthy and elite and allows them to prosper from the violating the Controlled Substances Act while sending people like Ralo to prison for years for doing the same thing,” he said. “We can’t have a two-tiered system where some (mostly rich white people) prosper from the industry but others (mostly black and brown people) are locked away for years, sometimes decades, for the same conduct.”


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