CJJC Client Profiled on NPR
The continued effect of harsh holdovers of old federal drug policy
Twenty years ago, Dion Walker was arrested in Fort Wayne on federal charges of possession of cocaine with intent to sell and given two life sentences. Despite a federal law that lessened his sentence, Walker then sat in a federal prison for 19 years.
In 2005, Walker was caught in possession of cocaine during an attempt to sell. He was indicted and pled guilty, receiving two life sentences in federal prison.
“I had one of those charges reduced in 2019 due to the First Step Act, but the First Step Act didn’t go far enough to reduce my second life sentence, so I had remained in prison six more years after that,” Walker said.
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Erica Zunkel is a clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago law school and directs the criminal and juvenile justice clinic. She worked on Walker’s case while trying to get compassionate release.
Walker and his fiancée, Virginia, have been together for nearly their whole lives. Virginia kept up the fight from outside of prison while Walker's legal team worked to reduce his sentences.
She said one of the most compelling aspects of his case is that he received a mandatory life sentence for a drug offense that someone could not receive today.
“The way that the law applied in his case was just incredibly draconian. He didn’t commit any violence, he didn’t kill anybody,” Zunkel said. “So, I think his sentence is just a relic of the War on Drugs, these really harsh mandatory minimum sentences that were passed by Congress in the 80s and that have taken decades to unwind.”
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