Parole Board Votes to Free Will Foster, Letters and Phone Calls Urgently Needed

Those of you have been with us awhile may remember our alert of February 6, 1997, informing our readers of the case of Will Foster, a patient who used marijuana to relieve the pain of his rheumatoid arthritis, sentenced to 93 years in prison by an Oklahoma jury encouraged by the prosecutor to "pick any number and add two or three zeroes to it."

Last month, an appeals court judge found that Foster's century-long sentence "shocked the conscience" and reduced the term to 20 years, which under Oklahoma law makes him eligible for parole now.  Last Sunday, NBC's Dateline news magazine aired a 20-minute report on the Foster case, featuring interviews with Will and Meg Foster, as well as the prosecutor, and reporting that the parole board has voted unanimously to set Will Foster free.  While Dateline reporters expressed skepticism as to whether Foster's case was purely about medical use, the show's unambiguous conclusion was that the sentence was unjust in any case.  The parole board's recommendation is now in the Governor's hands, to sign and enact, or reject.

We often ask our readers to pick up a phone or pen a letter and urge their elected officials to do that which is right and just.  This alert is especially important, as a 39-year-old husband and father of two can be reunited with his family, soon, if only the Governor follows the parole board's recommendations as he normally would.  Foster gaining his freedom will also serve as a symbolic victory that will energize the drug policy reform movement, proof that we can help the undeserving victims of America's repressive Drug War, and that we can go on to change these laws and end this cruel chapter of history.  Please, call write or fax Gov. Keating today and urge him to do the right thing, to sign the parole order and free Will Foster.

To reach the Governor, call (405) 521-2342, e-mail [email protected] (the governor's e-mail has bounced in the past, so we don't know for sure whether it works now, fax to (405) 521-3317, 523-4224 or 522-3492, or write to:

Governor Frank Keating
State Capitol Building, Room 212
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

Very important:  Be polite!  Remember, there is no reason to assume he is against us at this point, and we need to always present ourselves as credible and reasonable.

Also important:  Please send us copies of your letters, or send us e-mail letting us know that you have corresponded.  Contact us at [email protected] and send us the text of your letters, or just a note letting us know that you've called or faxed or mailed a letter or sent an e-mail.  This is very important to us because we are now reporting these statistics to our major donors on a monthly basis, and we need to be able to demonstrate our effectiveness in order to be able to keep their support and bring in new supporters.

For further background on the Will Foster case, check out

• Adam Smith's article in Reason Magazine, May 1997, at http://www.reasonmag.com/9705/col.smith.html
  (the first major article on the case)

• the Free Will Foster web site at http://www.gnv.fdt.net/~jrdawson/willfoster.htm
  (appeared on last weekend's Dateline report)

• our original alert at http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1997/2-6-1.html
  (also appeared on Dateline)

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