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Judge Michelle Childs, now being endorsed for a Supreme Court seat by South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, and by GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, reportedly sent a man to prison for 12 years–for selling eight ounces of marijuana, in 2009.
In 2009, Willie Roy Goodwin went before Richland County Circuit Court Judge J. Michelle Childs to plead guilty. He didn’t really have much of a choice, after inviting an undercover cop into his house repeatedly and selling him marijuana, all caught on hidden camera. He thought a plea deal looked like his best bet. So, plead he did, to five charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and one charge of failure to stop for a law enforcement vehicle.
He was prepared for more than a slap on the wrist. Even though he was a nonviolent offender, it was his third marijuana arrest, which in South Carolina brought with it a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
The length wasn’t the only concern: By the letter of South Carolina law, Goodwin would have to be housed with mainly violent offenders, because third-strike weed distribution charges were not eligible for parole at the time.
But there was also reason to be hopeful. The sum total of all five weed sales was only 8.73 ounces, a trifling amount to justify putting someone away for half a decade. It was the sort of situation where a canny judge, understanding the situation, could have found some sort of work-around.
“Five years was what they were saying in the beginning. I’m thinking, ‘It ain’t nothing but some weed,’” Goodwin told me via phone. “Even my lawyer was telling everybody weed was about to be legalized, it wasn’t anything serious.”
Judge Childs didn’t see it that way.
After hearing the prosecution’s argument, she sentenced Goodwin to 12 years for his half a pound of cumulative marijuana sales. Because it was a non-parolable third-strike offense, that meant that Goodwin was compelled to serve a minimum of 85 percent of that sentence locked up with violent offenders: ten-plus years of hard time, regardless of good behavior.
“I had more time than people in there who killed somebody. It was crazy,” said Goodwin. “For bullcrap.”
Today, Judge Childs, now sitting on the federal bench, is a top candidate to receive a Supreme Court nomination, with powerful backers like House Democratic Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
But the outsized sentence for a relatively small nonviolent drug offense stands out on Childs’s record. Read more.
