Robert Riley sentenced to life for sharing LSD at concert with other Deadheads - Sentence commuted
Riley was sentenced to mandatory life without parole because of prior convictions for 1.75 and 5.25 grams of marijuana, without which his sentence would have been 27 to 34 months.
At sentencing, Judge Ronald Longstaff told Riley, “The mandatory life sentence as applied to you is not just, it’s an unfair sentence, and I find it very distasteful to have to impose it…. I agree with one thing you said…about the laws of Congress… keeping me from being a judge right now in your case, because they’re not letting me impose what I think would be a fair sentence.”
Judge Longstaff added, “Even though this is a life sentence, I want it made clear that…it’s one the Judge was very dissatisfied in imposing. And Mr. Riley is not a threat in terms of violence.”
Judge Longstaff later told a law professor that he believed that a 10- to 12-year sentence would have been appropriate in Riley’s case.
Judge Longstaff, an appointee of former President George H. W. Bush, wrote nine years later, in 2002, in support of Riley’s commutation petition, “Given the circumstances of Mr. Riley’s case, it was difficult for me to impose the required life sentence. To this day, it remains the harshest punishment I have imposed as a district court judge. There was no evidence presented in Mr. Riley’s case to indicate that he was a violent offender or would be in the future. It gives me no satisfaction that a gentle person such as Mr. Riley will remain in prison the rest of his life.”
Riley’s commutation petition was not granted. Riley said at his sentencing hearing, “Today I will see the remainder of my life stand in forfeit.” He added, “I stand before this Court today with no choice but to promise to allow the Federal Government of the United States to spend freely, and unendingly, the money of the taxpayers…that they will spend each year to protect and isolate the American people from me.”
Riley refers to himself as a “dead man” because of his life-without-parole sentence and says that “the horror of a life term” is “to not be able to see an end.” Since his incarceration nearly two decades ago, his father has died and his mother has been afflicted with Alzheimer’s. He spends his time writing poetry and studying the Upanishads and the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Riley has experienced ongoing support from his trial judge and believes he has an excellent chance for clemency. He recalls that at his sentencing, this judge stated "I have been denied the opportunity to 'be a judge' in your case today"...
Read full story at The Clemency Report
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