ATTENTION - PUBLIC RACIAL EQUITY ALERT!!
The Federal Three Strikes statute just claimed another black life. Federal Judge Georgette Castner sentenced Timothy Wimbush in Trenton Federal Court on July 18, 2023 to an absurd 25 years using the Federal Career Offender three strikes law, citing Mr. Wimbush's prior drug convictions. What makes Judge Castner's ruling systemically racist is that Timothy Wimbush's strikes are non-violent drug charges totaling 21 grams of drugs, about the size of half a pack of Skittles. That's 25 years in a federal penitentiary for about $800 of drugs. The problem is that this federal three strikes law counts each single petty drug charge as a strike that is equal to a violent rape, murder, armed bank robbery, kidnapping, etc.
Prosecutors Brendan Day and Alexander Ramey have pushed unproven claims to the federal judges that Wimbush may have been involved in a shooting several years ago that he was never charged with. The evidence that he was involved is bare bones, at best. The 6th Amendment guarantees us the right to a public trial by a jury of our peers to face any and all accusations of crimes, yet Judge Castner used uncharged conduct that Wimbush could have readily defended, were he charged with it, to conclude that he should spend the next quarter of a century in a brutal federal penitentiary.
This is not fair justice- it is simply more "business as usual". This is today's systemic racism that fuels the criminal justice system and creates tens of billions of dollars in salary for judges, prosecutors, public defenders, jails and prisons, plus all those who service them. This is the Prison Industrial Complex, and like any industry they need raw materials in their factory. The raw materials for this industry are Black and Latino lives to feed the machine and keep it running for absurd and excessive years, like Timothy Wimbush.
If this were a normal state charge, Tim would already be home with his family. His case was made worse because a Trenton Police officer David Ordille admitted that he lied on the stand and on a warrant affidavit. Ordille was suspended for 6 months and then quietly reinstated. (https://www.trentonian.com/news/trenton-cop-facing-dismissal-for-lying-on-search-warrant-in-federal-drug-case/article_095ae374-dacd-11ea-8850-2fccc3e64879.html)
Tim grew up like many inner city youth, without a father and in sheer poverty. His dad was killed when he was 3 years old by an armed robber, while in Baltimore on a NCAA college football scholarship. Tim was raised by a teenage mother who was doing her best to raise 3 kids on a minimum wage job. They struggled for food, housing, and electricity. Timothy is known by all as a gentle and kind hearted person, who had to be a father to his little brothers and loves his momma dearly through all their struggles. He was a local hero in athletics and then made some wrong choices in life, but not wrong enough to deserve this 25 year sentence.
What can you do?
(1) Contact your Congressman and forward this message above to him and ask him to address the federal three strikes law and require it be rewritten to target only violent crimes. Go to google and type "zipcode find congressman".
(2) Go to whitehouse.gov and write to Joe Biden. Fill out the contact form.
(3) Donate to Tim Wimbush's gofundme to help him hire a federal appeal attorney to fight this sentence. https://gofund.me/10656332
Donate $5, ,$10, $20, $100, $500 Send the link and this message to musical artists. Post on black and latino Facebook groups. Post on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and target some wealthy activists, rappers, actors, etc. Let's not let Timothy Wimbush be another forgotten victim of systemic racism rotting in a dark prison.
For more information, contact Mr Wimbush's family member Jazzman Wright at phone # 609-503-1224.
Judge Georgette Castner - 609-815-2386/609-815-2751
Prosecutor J. Brendan Day - 609-989-2114/609-989-2114