Meade’s civil rights restored
Florida takes four months to tell voting rights advocate
Desmond Meade had been fighting for 11 years to get his civil rights restored, only to have his quest repeatedly end abruptly at yet another Clemency Board hearing. So he was shocked to learn Saturday that his wish had finally been granted.
It took the state four months to let him know.
“I don’t have a clue,” Meade said about the delay. “I assume it was lost in everything else that they’re doing. But the thing is, I didn’t even have to go up there. So folks may not necessarily have been paying attention that they actually voted on me getting my rights restored.”
Meade, of Orlando, overcame homelessness, addiction, and drug and firearm convictions to earn a law degree before spearheading the Amendment 4 movement to restore voting rights to former felons such as himself.
The amendment was approved by voters by a wide margin in 2018, only to see it hampered by a subsequent law requiring ex-felons to pay all fines, fees and restitution connected with their convictions before being able to vote.
In April 2019, Time magazine named Meade one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and the University of Florida’s Bob Graham Center for Public Service also named him the 2019 Floridian of the Year.
Meade has since been awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant, which includes a fellowship with John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation of Chicago and a $625,000 award.
While he continued his work at the Florida Rights Restoration Commission helping to raise funds to pay off fines and fees, his full
civil rights had not yet been restored by the state Clemency Board. The board, made up of the governor, attorney general, CFO and agriculture commissioner, meets only four times a year and has a backlog of hundreds of thousands of individual cases.
Until he was granted clemency, Meade did not have the right to run for office or take the bar exam to be able to practice law in Florida.
Time and time again, however, Meade’s request was denied at clemency hearings.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the board’s only Democrat, put forward a request for a full pardon for Meade in March.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said while “I’m not saying that he hasn’t done good things,” he would not grant a pardon because of Meade’s dishonorable discharge from the Army.
Fried then asked DeSantis, “if you’re not willing to do the full pardon, [could he] at least get his rights back?”
DeSantis said Meade would be eligible for a quick clemency process under new rules they had just put
in place.
“So I would encourage him to do that,’ DeSantis said. “And I’m sure he would get an automatic grant. I think he would qualify.”
Meade’s rights ended up being restored, according to his certificate, via an executive order by the Office of Executive Clemency on June 23, shortly after the June Clemency Board meeting. But it took almost four months for him to be notified.
Spokespersons for Fried and DeSantis did not respond to requests for comment about why it took so long.
“I found out about it through my wife,” Meade said. “She woke me up early Saturday morning, telling me I needed to record something with her for an organization that was given me an award. And I’m trying to figure things out because I didn’t remember that being my schedule.”
Sheena Meade and their kids handed him a piece of paper that she told him was a list of questions the organization wanted him to answer on camera.
“It was actually a certificate
that she was able to print out from the website, saying that my rights are restored,” Meade said. “... My wife knew because we have a notification on our email that lets us know when mail is coming to the house, and where it’s coming from. And when she saw that, she automatically assumed it was from the Clemency Board.”
Meade said of the 11 years it took to gain back his civil rights, “if a person who’s done the things that I’ve done can have a hard time getting their rights restored, what does that say about everybody else?”
He said he hoped the Clemency Board streamlines the expedited process and notifies people sooner.
“We understand this is a new policy, and people are still trying to figure things out,” Meade said. “So my focus is on how my organization will be able to help, so people can know with certainty what it is that they owe, and find out with certainty that they’re eligible to register to vote.”