Bernard Forrest was arrested in 2012 for drug possession offenses. After he was convicted, he received a life sentence because he had prior felony convictions. Soon thereafter, the law changed and his sentence became illegally lengthy. Mr. Forrest filed his own motion laying out how the new law applied to him, and even argued it himself in court, but a judge told him he was wrong.
In 2021, Innocence & Justice Louisiana filed a very similar motion to the one he had filed. This time, the same judge agreed that Mr. Forrest had been right all along and that his sentence was illegal. Mr. Forrest was resentenced and became eligible for parole. Innocence & Justice Louisiana represented him at his parole hearing where he was praised for the many programs he had taken to learn and grow while incarcerated.
He was released on June 23, 2023 after 11 years in prison.
