A Democratic congresswoman is accusing a Republican lawmaker of hypocrisy for sponsoring legislation to upend a Washington, D.C. sentencing reform law when his own charge for marijuana possession in his youth was dismissed under a court’s discretion.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday took up bills targeting D.C. policies that recently advanced through the Oversight and Government Accountability. That included a measure titled the DC Crimes Act from Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), which would restrict the District’s ability to enact sentencing reform.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said the GOP congressman’s push for the legislation represents a double standard given his own personal history with cannabis criminalization as a young adult and whose case was dismissed, enabling him to reach Capitol Hill.
“As a young man, he went through pretrial diversion for misdemeanor marijuana possession,” Crockett said. “As an adult yet younger than 24, he was placed on felony robbery charges, which ultimately, too, were expunged.”
“As I sat and listened to the beginning of this debate, my heart simply broke. And many people know me for being able to do alliterations, and all I could think about was ‘amnesia allows adolescent accountability avoidance, agility from across the aisle,’” she said.
“Work with me for a second: Imagine being a young man born to Jamaican and Panamanian parents who messed up not once but twice. Imagine standing in front of a judge with your life hanging in balance, and instead of prison you’re given a promise of mercy. Your record is wiped clean, and you’ve got a second chance at life. Imagine turning that into a promotion and you go to college and get a job and even become a member of Congress. That’s what redemption looks like.”
“That’s what America is supposed to be about. And that is exactly the story of the next wannabe governor from Florida, as a young man, he went through,” the congresswoman said, referring to Donalds.
Hellbound and Down 