Alabama’s largest city will issue blanket pardons for more than 15,000 people with misdemeanor marijuana convictions dating back to 1990, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said Tuesday.
This will have far reaching impact beyond Birmingham.
First, the convictions will now no longer be able to be used by other jurisdictions to enhance other misdemeanor Possession of Marijuana charges up to felonies. (In Alabama, a person caught in possession of a small amount of marijuana can be charged with a felony possession of marijuana if they have a prior conviction for marijuana.)
Second, similarly, these convictions cannot be used in calculations under sentencing guidelines for other offenses. (The sum total of prior misdemeanor convictions runs up the In-Out Worksheet and Prison Length Worsheet scores.)
