“I’m thrilled that, with my signature, we have a chance to right many historic wrongs,” Moore said in an interview. “If you want to be able to create inclusive economic growth, that means you have to start removing these barriers that continue to disproportionately burden communities of color.” Word of the Democratic governor, Wes MooreMaryland’s first black governor.
In an interview with the Washington Post Moore announced that the State will quash 175,000 convictions for marijuana use issued in recent decades. The Democrat told the American newspaper that he intends to “rectify a large number of historical errors” by signing this pardon decree. Around 100,000 people will see theirs disappear criminal records convictions for possessing or smoking a drug that is now legal in the state and widely used.
According to Moore, many people – most of whom belong to ethnic minorities – are still denied jobs, housing or access to education because of previous convictions for cannabis possession. Maryland, a state of six million inhabitants on the eastern coast of the USA, has legalized it recreational use and retail of marijuana with a referendum in 2023. According to state Attorney General Anthony Brown, the pardon applies to all those convicted of marijuana possession but “disproportionately positively affects” the black population. The Washington Post points out that African Americans represent 33% of Maryland’s population but 70% of the people incarcerated in the state.
As reported by the US newspaper, reduce the disparity in mass incarceration in the state was one of Moore’s main objectives, Brown and Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue, who are the first blacks to hold their positions in the state. Brown and Dartigue have started a prosecutor-defense partnership to study “the entire continuum of the criminal system”, from arrest by law enforcement to reintegration, trying to identify all the points where discretion or bias could influence how justice is applied and ultimately reform it. Maryland officials said the pardon, which would also apply to dead people, would not result in anyone being released from prison because no one is detained. Misdemeanor cannabis charges carry short sentences and prosecutions for criminal possession have ceased, as possession of small amounts of the drug is legal statewide.
