Community Essay : Three Strikes: ‘Hope Fades to Black’

Two months ago, a friend of mine was sentenced to 47 years to life in prison for stealing a dirt bike with two flats.

My situation is similar. I am facing a 25-years-to-life sentence for being convicted of possessing .09 of a gram of cocaine (a tiny amount known on the street as a “crumb,” which police did not even claim to find on my person--they said it was dropped into the bushes).

This is a consequence that is still quite unbelievable to me. It was unbelievable that, after I demanded a jury in the belief that I could prove my innocence, 12 people could be seated without one African-American. It was unbelievable that anyone could expect those 12 “foreign” people to understand enough about inner-city neighborhoods to make an intelligent conclusion regarding the guilt or innocence of a person accused under this set of circumstances, for such a tiny amount of this drug.

The fact that this is a three-strikes case confirms the existence of other crimes/convictions in my past. One strike was for a $70 gas station robbery with two friends in 1969. That was right after I returned from combat duty in Vietnam hooked on morphine and heroin, at a time before the military offered drug treatment. The other was in 1981, after I bought and forged some checks that were taken in a robbery. Since I was the only one arrested, I was convicted in the whole robbery, which I had no part in.

I was an addict then and still am. But I had been clean of drugs for two years and held a good daily job. I took the bus every day for a year to save enough to buy a car. But a moment of stupidity, a brief lapse in the people with whom I associated during a trip to Long Beach for a haircut and a visit with my mother, may now cost me the rest of my life.

I’m no saint. [The district attorney’s office notes that Wilson has other convictions that did not count toward his three-strikes case.] But I have never physically abused anyone (except me), nor does anyone consider me a danger to society. In my bail reduction hearing, the judge said, “I have no doubt that Mr. Wilson is not a danger to society, to himself or others.” He said he was only concerned that I might flee because of the sentence I faced, so he returned me to prison.

On June 13, I may very well be sentenced to life in prison. Every now and then I feel a fear that I’ve never experienced before. It’s like being swept under by a big wave and for a few moments not knowing what’s up or down. Reality ceases, hope fades to black.

But God is good. His blessings are abundant. I pray for a miracle.

[Editors note: Since Ron Wilson wrote this article, prosecutors have agreed to exclude one of his “strikes,” the 1969 robbery conviction. He thus faces a shorter maximum sentence.]