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Free Willie Rehabilitated Aikens deserves mercy
Updated: Wednesday February 21, 2001 6:07 PM
Willie Aikens didn't get the presidential commutation he had hoped for. President Clinton had, it seems, some other, more deserving types to dispense mercy to. So Aikens remains in an Atlanta federal penitentiary with no hope of parole for another 10 years. You may remember Aikens. He played almost a decade in the majors, mostly with the Kansas City Royals, and was especially prominent in the 1980 World Series. He was a big, powerful first baseman who was also well known for his full name, which is Willie Mays Aikens. Unfortunately, Aikens' career was ended by cocaine, and in 1994, as an addict who had ballooned up to 300 pounds, he was arrested for selling crack to a federal undercover agent. Nobody, least of all Aikens, disputes the facts of the case -- although the circumstances surely do trod a fine line of entrapment. The agent came to his house, knocked on his door, urged him to sell her some coke and then encouraged Aikens to cook the coke, turning it into crack. This is especially crucial because, under federal sentencing guidelines, crack draws a sentence many times what an equivalent amount of cocaine does -- despite the fact that crack is derived solely from powder cocaine. And so, with a tough judge, a weak lawyer and Aikens' own continued drug use when he was out on bond, he was given a sentence of 20 years and four months. That's awfully severe. Everything else aside, if he had not cooked the cocaine, his sentence would have already run out by now. Moreover, he's only eligible for a maximum parole of three years, which means that, at best, Aikens will serve more than 17 years for selling a small amount of cocaine. And that's the best he can hope for. Serial murderers pull less time. The draconian punishment is all the more unfair in that it has a racial bias. Crack defendants -- those facing far harsher penalties -- are much more likely to be Hispanic or African-American. In fact, 95 percent of federal crack cases involve minorities. Whites who use the exact same amount of powder cocaine as blacks do crack invariably get state courts and far less time. Willie Aikens was stupid, addicted and living a wasted life. Today, he is free of drugs, a man improved both of body and soul. He is spiritually revitalized and physically refreshed. In a word, Willie Aikens is rehabilitated, and further incarceration constitutes pointless punishment. And after all, he was the only true victim to his own crime. Yes, all of us are sick of wealthy, spoiled athletes who throw away their lives and their talent. No one asks that these fellows be granted any pity or dispensation. Aikens himself makes no excuses for his mistakes. Having paid in spades for his sins, he only wants to be freed, to come home, be with his two young daughters again, get a job and live out his life the best he can. If nothing is done to correct the injustice of his penalty, he will be 56 before he is released. He will have lost his own best years and all chance of spending time with his daughters during their childhood. Unless the inequitable drug laws are changed, Willie Aikens' only hope is that the President of the United States commutes his sentence. President Clinton chose not to. We can only hope that President Bush , who is an old baseball man, will be the one to let another old baseball man come back into the sunshine. These commentaries, which appear each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, are posted weekly by CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. |
