In 2011, Shannon Ferguson was arrested for a misdemeanor. Police searched his pockets and found a piece of cocaine in his pocket lint. He was charged with possession of cocaine, even though the tiny rock was the size of a coarse grain of salt.
Mr. Ferguson represented himself in this case, filing his own motions, examining witnesses, and arguing his position without the advice of counsel. A jury convicted him and the state sought to enhance his sentence under the habitual offender laws. At that point, Mr. Ferguson asked for a lawyer to represent him–but the judge denied him. He sentenced Mr. Ferguson to 60 years in prison–decades above the mandatory minimum of his habitual offender sentencing range.
Innocence & Justice Louisiana filed a petition for post-conviction relief in 2020, alleging that Mr. Ferguson had not properly waived his right to counsel with respect to sentencing, that his appellate counsel had failed in their duty to identify this issue, and that he was entitled to a new sentencing hearing. The district attorney agreed that Mr. Ferguson was entitled to be resentenced in 2023.
After more than 11 years, at 63 years old, Mr. Ferguson was freed.
