Smyrna man released after Cobb DA reviews sentence
MARIETTA — After serving nearly 15 years in a state prison on crack cocaine possession charges, Christopher Eugene Howard walked out of jail Friday morning a free man.
Members of the Smyrna man’s family wiped tears from their eyes during a sentence modification hearing as Howard, now 57, re-entered a guilty plea for a shorter sentence and signed the paperwork allowing him to re-enter society.
This summer, the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia and district attorneys around the state agreed to take a second look at old sentences imposed on nonviolent drug offenders and re-evaluate whether those sentences remain appropriate.
Howard’s case was the first of 16 drug-related cases to be looked at by Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds, who said punishments handed down during the crack epidemic of the ’90s and early 2000s didn’t always fit the crime.
“We cannot arrest our way out of an epidemic,” he said. “It’s impossible. What we have to do is look at cases that have been sentenced previously and see whether or not those sentences are just.”
In late 2002, Howard, who ran a lawn care service with his brother, was convicted of possessing 5.5 grams of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. Given his history of other drug and theft-related convictions, he was sentenced as a recidivist to 40 years with 25 to serve in prison.
Acknowledging that 15 years is a long time, Cobb’s top prosecutor did not oppose a motion filed by Howard’s attorneys for resentencing.
Weeping after it was announced Howard would be home in time for Christmas this year, members of his family said having him back was the best present they could have ever asked for.
Shaddi Abusaid, Marietta Daily Journal
“Judy and I will be celebrating Hanukkah as we have been for the last six years, by ourselves in our home,” Benowitz said, referring to the Jewish festival that started Tuesday night.
Referred to as the festival of lights, Hanukkah is an eight-day recognition of the Maccabees reclaiming and rededicating the Temple in Jerusalem.
During Hanukkah, Jews traditionally light a menorah, which calls back to the oil in the Temple miraculously providing light for eight days — seven more than expected.
“Hanukkah is the story of a small army of Jews, the Maccabees led by Judah Maccabee and his father Mattathias, who triumphed over the Syrian Greeks by driving them out of the Temple in Jerusalem and rededicating it to God and Israel,” Benowitz said. “When Judah Maccabee and his men re-entered the Temple there was only oil enough to light the eternal flame for one day, but the flame burned for eight days and this is the miracle of Hanukkah from which we get the festival of lights.
Marie Nesmith, Cartersville Daily Tribune News