Lil Wayne, Kodak Black Amongst Celebrities Who Received Pardons

For as unbelievably divisive, shady and inexperienced as Donald Trump proved himself to be in office, he remains a celebrity. With that being said, his list of pardons proved to be much like his entire tenure in office - comical. Let’s take a look at some of the influential individuals he granted clemency to this past week.

Alice Johnson - this 63 year old woman was serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug related crime stemming from a Memphis cocaine trafficking incident in 1996. She admits that her involvement included relaying coded messages over the phone. Thanks to Trump and lobbying from Kim Kardashian, she is now free and can fight the good fight against systemic racism.

Desiree Perez - locked up due to a conspiracy to distribute narcotics, she displayed incredible rehabilitation while incarcerated. Also, she took full accountability for her actions and displayed pride, growth and perseverance along with gainful employment during her stint. Trump pardoned the Roc Nation CEO so that she will be able to pursue a lifelong commitment to social and criminal justice reform.

Michael ‘Harry O’ Harris - the co-founder of Death Row Records served thirty years on a 25-Life bid for drug trafficking. While in prison, he gained a journalism and business management degree. Now that he is granted clemency, he will be able to move forward thanks to lobbying from the likes of Snoop Dogg.

Sidenote: Death Row Records sold eighteen million albums in four years after its inception in 1991. The powerhouse dissolved due to lawsuits, threats of violence and near bankruptcy in 2006.

Lil Wayne - After a private tip led to Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.’s arrest, authorities found marijuana and a gold-plated handgun on Weezy’s private jet from California to Florida. Due to a prior conviction that was extremely harsh, Lil Wayne was looking at another major bid. Wayne put up $1M to the Trump campaign and it turns out that it played in his favor.

Deion Sanders stated that Lil Wayne is a ‘waymaker’ ‘game-changer’ and a ‘man of faith.’

Kodak Black - although granted a pardon, Kodak Black (birth name Dieuson Octave) is still incarcerated. He was arrested after indicating on firearm acquisition paperwork that he was not currently under indictment. After police recovered Kodak’s (legal name Bill Kapri) fingerprints on a weapon with a live round in the chamber, he was taken into custody due to the nature of the incident.

His original release date was August ‘22 but a $50K donation to Barstool Sports’ Small Business Fund (organized by Dave Portnoy) served him well.

Or so one might think - the state of South Carolina still has a detainer on file for his extradition and process of a first degree sexual assault charge.

Does anyone notice a theme here? It seems as if people of color receive much harsher treatment from our judicial system. Do the Wright thing, America.

Ian Romaker

Wordsmith