Detroit City Wire

Michelle West was just 25 years old when she took a job at a car dealership in Detroit. She never dreamed the decision would land her in federal prison, but that’s exactly what happened.

When the owner of the car dealership was indicted, West was included in the round-up of defendants because of her association with him and now faces the possibility of spending the rest of her life in federal prison for conspiracy unless granted clemency by Pres. Donald Trump.

“Michelle has served 20 years of a double life plus 50 years sentence on the word of co-defendants who cut pleas and never served a day even though there was nothing in the record that tied Michelle to the crime,” said Amy Ralston Povah, president of the Clemency for All Non-violent Drug Offenders (CAN-DO) Foundation.

As previously reported, West has been serving her debt to society in Dublin, California federal prison, filling her time earning a Marist College Certificate of Achievement in Business Management and launching a mentoring program where she meets weekly with younger inmates to help them cope with incarceration.

“She didn’t have an opportunity to cooperate or accept a 20-year plea bargain because she had received threats and was concerned for the safety of her only daughter, Miquella, who was 10 years old at the time,” Povah told the Detroit City Wire.

The 59-year-old is among a countless number of women sentenced on conspiracy charges through loose associations with others for crimes they didn’t actually commit, according to Povah.

“The legal system failed Michelle when the 1984 sentencing scheme came into play,” Povah said in an interview. “Judges could no longer consider mitigating circumstances, such as the fact that Michelle is a first offender and had a child to take care of.”

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Sentencing Commission took over the previous legal system as a result of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, according to a press release.

“Judges are mere prosecutorial aids if they have to use charts to sentence defendants and are banned from taking into consideration mitigating circumstances,” said Povah who received clemency from former Pres. Bill Clinton after serving 9 years in federal prison for a similar crime.