On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Kemba Smith.
In the early 1990s, Smith was a sophomore at Hampton University in Virginia when she became involved in a relationship with Peter Michael Hall. He turned out to be a drug dealer who used young women as drug-carrying mules in his crack cocaine distribution ring. Initially, she had no knowledge of his drug activities but gradually, Hall began to use her in his business.
In 1994, Smith quickly became the poster child for what some judges, lawyers and activists say where the unfairness of mandatory sentencing guidelines. After serving six and a half years, she received a presidential clemency from President Bill Clinton. Decades later, a film is telling her story. Smith story begins in Glen Allen, a suburb of Richmond, Virginia, she was an only child growing up in middle-class, majority-white environment.
Smith is a graduate of Virginia Union University and was a past recipient for a two-year Soros Justice Postgraduate Fellowship for advocates. In December 2014, she was appointed to the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission by Governor Terry McAuliff. Smith has spoken at the White House, testified before Congress and the United Nations regarding a variety of criminal justice issues.
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