This parolee is a law-abiding business owner. Why would Missouri send him back to prison?
After Dimetrious Woods was convicted of drug trafficking in 2007, he served 11 years in a Missouri prison before being released on parole nearly two years ago.
The reformed drug dealer is not ashamed of his past. It’s the future that has Woods’ stomach in knots.
The Missouri man was originally sentenced to 25 years for a nonviolent drug offense in Clay County before the Missouri Department of Corrections’ Probation and Parole Division granted his conditional release in March 2018.
Since then, Woods has personified the aims of rehabilitation and restorative justice. The father of five is a business owner and motivational speaker. He operates a car detail shop and window tinting business with his son in Columbia, Missouri. The family also operates a food truck.
“I used to sell cocaine in Columbia. Now, it’s fish and chicken,” Woods told The Star Editorial Board.
Woods has been a productive, law-abiding citizen since his release. But he now finds himself in legal peril.
In 2017, the Missouri legislature repealed a law that made “prior and persistent” drug offenders such as Woods ineligible for parole. Kansas City-based attorney Kent Gipson filed suit, seeking to have Woods released from prison under the new law. Cole County Judge Daniel Green agreed that Woods deserved a parole hearing, and the parole board approved Woods’ immediate release shortly thereafter.
But then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley appealed Green’s ruling. And the Missouri Supreme Court recently ruled the state law could not be applied retroactively, putting Woods and 119 other still-incarcerated nonviolent drug offenders in legal limbo.
If Woods loses his last-ditch appeal — and it’s likely that he will — he will be sent back to prison to serve the remaining 12 years of his sentence.
Woods has not run afoul of the law since his release, Gipson said. He regularly speaks with young people about the dangers of street life.
“This is maddening on so many levels,” Gipson said.
Last week, Gipson penned a letter to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt imploring him to dismiss the appeal made by the attorney general’s office. Schmitt has the authority to drop the case and allow Woods to remain a free man.
Chris Nuelle, a spokesman for Schmitt, acknowledged that the office has received Gipson’s letter but declined to comment.
“This is an outrageous miscarriage of justice,” Gipson said. And he’s right.
“Everyone from across the political spectrum has said it is bad policy to lock up nonviolent drug offenders for life.”
Criminal justice reform at the state and federal levels has reduced overcrowded prisons by releasing nonviolent offenders from custody. The misguided laws that put nonviolent offenders such as Woods and others behind bars for decades have proven ineffective in America’s war on drugs.
Missouri would be moving in the wrong direction if the state returned Woods to prison and continued to incarcerate other drug offenders who could have been eligible for parole if the law were applied retroactively.
It’s up to Schmitt to right what would be a grievous wrong. Woods has upheld his end of this legal bargain, and there is nothing to be gained from putting him back behind bars.
Despite all of the positive work he has done, Woods said he has more to give.
“I’ve held back because I knew this day could possibly happen,” he said. “But I have so much more to offer to my community.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.