Posted on 07/20/2008 6:10:29 AM PDT by DJ Taylor
Leon Quinn got out of prison in New York last year, moved to North Carolina and tried to start a new life.
But employers don’t want to hire a convicted felon, and it’s hard to get your own place when you don’t have a job, he said.
“It’s like we’re marked as criminals,” Quinn said. “It’s like we don’t have a say.”
But, Quinn learned Saturday he does have a say, even with a felony conviction.
In North Carolina, people convicted of a felony can vote, once they’ve served their time behind bars and completed the terms of their probation and parole. On Saturday, three criminal justice organizations hosted a rally at Bronco Square on Murchison Road to educate people about convicts’ rights and to register to vote as many felons as they could.
About 75 people came to the rally, which was hosted by Democracy North Carolina, Fresh Start Incorporated and the Institute for Community Justice of Fayetteville State. Jennifer Frye, associate director of Democracy North Carolina, said the group registered 9 voters who had been convicted of a felony.
“The right to vote is one of our most fundamental rights in a democracy,” Frye said. “It’s a ticket to feeling like a first-class citizen.”
Quinn agrees. He was watching television with his girlfriend Saturday morning when he saw Charles Evans, a Fayetteville city councilman, on the air. Evans was saying that felons could register to vote in North Carolina. Quinn almost didn’t believe it.
“He was under the impression that, as a felon, he couldn’t vote,” said his girlfriend, Margo McMillan.
Quinn had been in and out of trouble since he was a teenager. He mostly sold crack, and figures that from 1981 — when he first got arrested — to 2007, he spent about 15 years locked up.
The thought that he might have a say in how his society functions made him happy. He’d like to elect someone who will help him get a job.
“That’s why I’d like to vote,” he said, laughing.
McMillan nodded.
“Once you did your time, I don’t think you need to keep paying for your past,” she said.
Staff writer Laura Arenschield can be reached at arenschieldl@fayobserver.com or 486-3572.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
That says it all, don't it?
Did I leave anyone out?
Yes.....illegals (unless of course you are including them in another classification which you did a good job of listing)
As of May 10, 2007 all 50 states allow felons to
vote. Restrictions apply in some states.
The two most restrictive are Kentucky, where
voting rights can be restored only when the
Governor approves an application for an executive
pardon for reinstatement of voting rights from an
individual after completion of his/her sentence.
Mississippi, where An individual, after
completion of their sentence, must go to his or
her state representative and convince them to
personally author a bill reenfranchising that
individual. Both houses of the legislature must
then pass the bill, and the governor must sign
it. Each year about 10 to 12 people are
re-enfranchised in Mississippi.
25 states allow felons to vote after serving
their sentences and parole or supervised release,
13 states allow felons to vote as soon as they
leave prison, 2 states, (Maine and Vermont) allow
incarcerated felons to vote.
The other 8 states allow felons to vote with less
severe restrictions such as applying to county
boards or waiting 2 to 5 years after completion
of sentence.
http://www.felonvotingprocon.org/pop/StateLaws.htm
And how could I have forgotten to include the dead?
While most of them will register Democrat and allowing felon voting is against my self interest I really don’t have a problem with someone who has served his full sentence being restored his full rights as a citizen.
I was thinking the exact same thing when I read that sentence. He’ll make a perfect Democrat voter.
And with that attitude, a future re-offender.
What should happen to this guy? Should he be allowed to rot in the streets? I can't imagine what it must be like for someone to have erred, did his time and now has a clean record (no current arrests) to try to find a decent job.
I am not saying that any politician will help but the guy's apparently trying to find a job and no one will hire him because of his past convictions. What does he do?
Well DUH!
Sucks when you have to lay in the bed you made, huh?
? And why do you think you should not have to continue paying for your crimes after your prison term is over?
There are plenty of people I'm sure that are still paying for the crimes you committed against them, the ruined lives of the families whose son or daughter, you killed with the drugs you sold them, or they are still alive but living in a mental hospital with a fried brain. People whose loved ones were shot and killed by those who became addicts from the drugs you sold them.
There are plenty of jobs for a person like you. They involve a lot of charity work. They may not pay well, but so what. You should spend the rest of your life helping those whose lives you've ruined; It tells people, and most of all God, that you are truly repentant for your sins against him and those you've harmed. God will tell you when it's enough when your fortunes improve.
And the infirm.
....someone have erred, did his time and now has a clean record.....etc...
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Your comments are correct and there should be something done but this guy is a ‘career criminal’ dating back to 1981 which culminated in a 15 year sentence and he ‘hasn’t been caught for a year or so’.
Yes, maybe he did ‘see the light’ but wouldn’t we be better served if these cases were handled ‘case by case’ rather than a blanket clearing.
I was a drinker then a practicing, functioning, drunk for 25 or so years, haven’t had a drink since 1990 but if I go out tomorrow and down a 6 pack, I am a practicing drunk again. It took a DUI in 1990 to get me on this track but considering that I should have had several DUI’s I was very fortunate.
However, the state took about 7 years to give my ‘full right to drive’ privileges back.
Now we may consider that ‘rehabilitation’ but my fate and future is in my own hands as to the drinking etc...
Maybe if it was his first "err". maybe even the second, or perhaps a third. But not a career criminal like him. He made his bed, let him sleep in it. Or do as I suggest above.
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Quinn had been in and out of trouble since he was a teenager. He mostly sold crack, and figures that from 1981 — when he first got arrested — to 2007, he spent about 15 years locked up.
- - - - - - - - - -
This guy will likely be BACK in the slammer by the first Tuesday after the first Monday this November.
There are plenty of jobs for a person like him. They just aren't the best jobs. He can work for any Democrats campaign team for example....
Or what the heck, just give them full pardons when they are released, then they can run for office as a Democrat, even POTUS.
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