It has been an incredible first year of service as state representative, and the experience became even more rewarding recently as justice finally prevailed in the case of Jeff Mizanskey.
As someone who firmly believes this man had more than paid his debt to society, I was proud to take on his fight and to help organize the efforts of my legislative colleagues as we put pressure on Gov. Nixon to do the right thing. In May, the governor finally acted to commute Mr. Mizanskey’s sentence and on September 1, I was on hand with Jeff’s family as he was finally released from prison after more than 20 years of incarceration.
For those who don’t know the story, Jeff Mizanskey was convicted of three offenses involving the possession and sale of marijuana. After his third offense in 1993, Mizanskey was sentenced to a sentence of life without parole under Missouri’s prior and persistent drug offender laws.
The Missouri Legislature has since passed revisions to those laws eliminating the possibility of a life sentence being given to future marijuana-only offenders. However, that did nothing for Mizanskey, who was the only person in Missouri condemned to a life sentence for marijuana even though he had never before done time in prison previously and was never convicted of any violent offenses.
Thanks to the support of more than two-thirds of my legislative colleagues and more than 390,000 citizens who signed an online petition, Jeff Mizanskey is a free man today! After spending one-third of his life in prison and costing taxpayers more than $20,000 a year, Jeff can now become a productive citizen again.
Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin) represents District 98 in the Missouri House of Representatives.
