Sean Worsley, the 34-year-old disabled Iraqi War veteran and Purple Heart recipient who had been jailed in Alabama for felony cannabis possession, has been released from prison, Al.com reports. Last month Worsley had been granted parole.
Worsley had served 10 months in prison stemming from a 2016 cannabis arrest, despite Worsley obtaining it through Arizona’s medical cannabis program, where he is a patient. An Alabama circuit court judge sentenced him to five years in late September citing previous convictions and failure to comply with “any condition of bond or probation,” noting that Worsley had twice returned to Arizona when he had been previously released while awaiting his court dates.
“I’m overjoyed really, relieved,” Worsley told Al.com. “I’m still taking it all in.”
Alabama state Sen. Cam Ward (R), who had pushed to get Worsley released, called the pardon “the right decision to make, particularly during a pandemic.”
“There are several people who should be in prison, but some people who shouldn’t be in the system. He’s one of them. If there was ever a case of someone society has let down, someone, a veteran, who couldn’t get the mental health and treatment he needed, it was him. We discarded him and that’s not justice to me.” – Ward to Al.com
Worsley will remain in Alabama and has received a job from Blox LLC, a manufacturing, design, and construction company, who had included their employment offer for him in a previous community supervision agreement that had been considered – but rejected – by the sentencing judge.
Worsley said he was “excited and eager to get started” at the firm.
A GoFundMe had been set up by his wife, Eboni, to help pay for legal fees. The campaign raised more than $108,000 on an $80,000 goal.
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