‘I guess I won’t be home for Christmas.?
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One reason I have long-lived in the area is because of Christmas. I want to be around family and friends during this most special of times. I am sentimental and mushy — just like those songs (not hymns) you hear on the all-Christmas-all-the-time radio stations. I am also cheap. And, if we lived in another state we’d have to fly in for the holiday. Being cheap, the idea of packing up Jennie, Shamus and Sean, kenneling the dogs and taking care of the cats for flights to Michigan makes me sweat.
I wish you a joyous Christmas. Give everyone you love a hug. Unfortunately, I know one man who will not be home for Christmas. Barring the proverbial Christmas miracle, Larry Drum won’t be with his family come December 25. And, well, as folks in the Catholic church know, miracles don’t come easy, baby. In front of my computer monitor is a Christmas card from Larry, wishing me and my family a ‘wonderful Christmas.?
Damn.
Larry Drum, 68, is a former Orion resident and now permanent resident of the Michigan Department of Corrections. In the state system he’s known as Prisoner Number 222000. He’s been in prison now for almost 15 years and only has what — life to go — before he’s a free man. His family and friends have been working their tails off to try and get him out of the slammer hopefully for Christmas but definitely before his frail 92-year-old mother, Ione, passes away.
He’s in the big house now because he let a friend sell cocaine out of his home. The dude sold it to a user being used by an Oakland County narcotics task force to entrap the seller. Both the seller and Larry were found guilty. The seller took his attorney’s advice and went to trial in front of a jury. Larry took his attorney’s advice and went to trial only before a judge.
The seller’s fate was determined by a jury. He was paroled and has been a free man for almost a year. Larry’s fate was sealed by a judge using an old, draconian law no longer even on the books.
Before all you upright, law and order folks start getting indignant and barking about he’s just another convict who got what he deserves, there are a few things you aught to know, which makes Larry’s case all the more compelling. For starters, Larry’s sister was murdered in the 1970s. The killer was found to be her husband. He was tried, convicted and after about six years set free by the same state still holding Larry for letting somebody else sell cocaine in his apartment.
According to the records I’ve read, Larry, an honorably discharged United States Marine, had no previous run-ins with the law. His was not a violent crime and since his imprisonment, has been a good inmate. I actually visited him a couple of months ago. Larry isn’t claiming innocence. Quite the opposite. He admits using cocaine and letting somebody else sell drugs from his apartment. His family thinks he’s served enough time; he should be free to come home and start again contributing to society. (You can get the whole story by going to the editorial search engine on the right, enter Larry’s name).
Last month, after a flurry of activity — newspapers across the region reported on his plight — Governor Jennifer Granholm told the Drum family to get a petition to the state’s 10-person parol board for review.
Elated, they moved quickly. They got former Michigan Governor William Milliken to write letters in support. About 150 others wrote, too, and by the beginning of November, the governor’s office turned the case over to the parole board. On November 23, the board gave it back the the Gov, declaring the case had no merit and recommended no parole for Larry.
‘I don’t know of any governor in recent memory that has gone against a parole board’s recommendation,? the gov’s press secretary Liz Boyd told me.
In other words, don’t hold your breath until Gov. Granholm grants Drum a commutation. Hence, this column. It’s fourth and long with little time left on the clock. It’s time for a Hail Mary pass. It’s time for the governor to restore a tradition of granting Christmas commutations.
This week, dear reader, while you’re safe and warm spending the season with the ones you love, take a moment and think of Larry Drum. And, tonight when you go to bed and say your prayers, say one for the Drum family. Then say one for Gov. Granholm. Pray the light of forgiveness shines on her heart. Pray she sees a commutation as a gift, not as a potential dagger wielded by political foes.
Larry poses no threat to society.
Pray for the Governor and when you wake up, why don’t you send a Christmas card to her and ask her to help Prisoner Number 222000 — the forgotten man, Larry Drum. Send Larry home, if not by Christmas, then by New Year’s Eve.