Both sides weigh in on Michigan’s Second Chance Sentencing Act

By Larry Wallace

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    LANSING, Michigan (WSYM) — It’s been over two decades since Casara Jackson has hugged her son Cornelius outside of prison walls. Cornelius was arrested in 1999 for a shooting that his family says he didn’t do.

“He didn’t have a murder weapon, he didn’t fit the description of the suspect that the witness said they saw,” Casara said.

Cornelius was 28 years old when he was sentenced to 50-70 years behind bars.

Casara said her family has been following the recent legislation introduced called the Second Chance Sentencing Act hoping it will allow her son to come home.

“I believe the second chance will give them a chance to show information, to prove that some of these criminals didn’t do it and show society yes, I have been rehabilitated, and I could live out here in the world and not commit a crime that I may have committed when I was 15 or 16,” Casara said.

The legislation, if passed, would allow incarcerated people who have served at least 10 years of their sentence to petition a judge for their sentence to be reduced.

While I was interviewing Jackson at her home, Cornelius called and told me how he felt about the bill.

“I do believe in second chances. I worked in the law library 10 years during my time being incarcerated,” Cornelius said. “I support the second look bill, and there’s actually a lot of guys in here who are trying to have their families go to rallies to show their support too.”

Casara said she will continue to be vocal about supporting the bill and also will be advocating to get her son a second chance.

“If I felt like he didn’t deserve a second chance, I would say so, but I do,” Casara said.

While the second look bill has gotten a lot of support, there are some people who don’t support it like Karen Jackson, who lost her son Jeff during a double homicide in 2017.

“He was living at home and running a successful computer repair business,” Karen said. “ An acquaintance came to his house and stabbed him to death, then did the same thing to his lady friend.”

Jeff’s killer was charged with two counts of open murder and sentenced to life in prison.

“Killing is something that there should never be a reduction for,” Karen said.

And that’s exactly why Karen said she’s against the bill.

“When it comes to murder, there is no restitution that can happen to heal a mother’s pain or other family member’s pain,” Karen said. “A lot of times our justice means keeping the killer behind bars.”

And Karen said she’ll be using her advocacy powers to prevent the Second Chance Sentencing Act from passing.

“I am speaking out for others, I am not alone in this,” she said.

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