Coriander Epigenin, nice to meet you.
"Thank you very much, I'm happy to be here too."
Coriander Epigenin, a tall, well built, middle aged stallion, sentenced to life without parole in prison for selling plunderseed leaves and poison joke petals on the streets of Baltimare.
So first, some background on how you got yourself in prison in the first place.
Coriander scratched his head. "Let me think, it really all started when I was fifteen. Some other fillies in my neighborhood were experimenting with the stuff they wound in their parent's cabinets. I'd always see them hanging out on the corner, blazing some odd plant or whatever, having a good time, laughing and playing. Eventually I started leaving the house when my parents left for work. I'd walk around the neighborhood, making friends and getting connections. By the time I was seventeen, I think I was selling every week about a kilogram of dried plunderseed leaves, forty or fifty pounds of poison joke petals, and about a pound of raw hearts desire."
Wow, that's no small amount of drugs. How much did you make back then?
"I can't remember the exact amount now," he said, pausing to think, "but I do remember having saved about twelve thousand bits before I was caught by the police. I was at the top of the market by the time I was twenty, there must have been at least thirty other dealers in the network that came to me."
So, with such a large network of drugs, did you ever think about what it was doing to your community, or how you were feeding the addiction for those substances?
"At the time, no," Coriander shook his head. "I don't think I ever stopped to consider the kind of corruption I was in. I'll be honest back then all I thought about on the topic was just the next deal. And that just shows how sick I was then, how messed up my mind was and how corrupt the whole business was."
I read up a little on the court case, and it says that another pony involved in the entire operation was caught and put on trial, but his sentence was only twelve years, not life. Did they ever explain why?
"Yeah, that pony, Green Glass, the stallion I got my drugs from, he went to trial with me and got charged with the same amount I had, but they gave him less time just because he sold the drugs unprocessed, while I had the plunderseeds dried and poison joke preserved."
Do you think that was fair?
"Absolutely not, you know, he was just as much of a problem as I was back then, and it's just crazy to think I got life while he only had a little over a decade, for essentially the same thing."
After the return of the Crystal Empire the federal sentencing guidelines for any processed narcotic plant was a hundred time more severe than raw, because of an explosion of "Sparklers" in the drug market. Sparklers were specially grown crystal berries that could store chemicals found in various other psychedelic plants, and its production increased overall use of processed narcotics.
Princess Celestia would later reduce the disparity, but it wouldn't effect those who were already serving a sentence. By the time the change was made, Coriander was already midway through his sixth year in Baltimare Countryside Prison.
How often did you think Baltimare Countryside would be the last thing you would ever see?
Coriander chuckled a little. "You know, I've probalby waken up with that thought every day for sixteen years. You know I'd think to myself, 'This is my life. I'm going to die here.'"
It was here in B.C. Prison where Coriander finally petitioned Princess Celestia for clemency, even though he knew tens of thousands of petitions like were denied every day; it was his final option.
Could you tell me a little bit about the petition you wrote to Princess Celestia?
"I definitely can," he replied. "I prepared it as if my life depended on it because, as a matter of fact, it did. I took legal classes through correspondents and got help with my writing before I even sat down to start the draft. And when I finally starting typing it down, it was like I put a piece of myself onto that paper."
How much of the petition do you remember?
"Oh, all of it. I could tell you word for word what I wrote down."
Really? Do you mind reciting a part of it? I'm sure the audience would be as interested as I am to hear some of what you wrote.
"I think the best part of it all was the ending. 'Thank you for your time, Princess Celestia, and I hope after reading my petition for Commutation, you come to the conclusion that I was not a bad pony growing up, but pony who made a bad decision.'"
And why is that so important to you?
"To me, it's the whole reason I believe ponies like me deserve a second chance in this world. I couldn't see the whole picture back then I just took the easy road to money. It was a mistake and I needed to show I can be some pony better, some pony who can be of use to this society."
This Commutation, most ponies don't know what it's like to have their lives given to them. Could you describe how you felt receiving that grant of clemency?
"I still remember reading it," he began. "I looked at it and it almost felt like a dream, I was worried that I'd suddenly wake up and not have that response in my hooves. It was just the biggest relief I've ever felt in my life."
And what was on that reply?
"A lot of technical statements, a lot of official statements, but what made it so special for me was the last piece," he paused, taking a breath."It wrote, 'Be it known that I, Princess Celestia, Princess of Equestria and the Sun, take consideration of..." Coriander sniffled, his eyes reddening with tears, "the premises that there is other good and sufficient reasons to move it, do hereby grant," he stopped again, holding back his tears, "the said application.'"
The royal grant of clemency reduced Coriander's sentence to twenty years, and since then has had a profound impact on his life.
It's obvious that both the grace of the Princess and the punishing effect of mandatory minimum sentences have affected your life in ways most ponies couldn't being to understand. Yet not all mandatory minimum laws have been revised. What do you think about all the other ponies who have to go through what you went through, without such a miracle in their life?
I gave Coriander a moment to compose himself. He sniffled a little and replied, "I think about it a lot, and when I think about some of the stallions I became friends with in prison it gives me a sense of duty out here."
How so?
"I know society doesn't really think much about the ponies locked up, most of them don't care at all. But me being out here, working and putting my talents to helping non-profit organizations, I just hope to show society that all some pony needs is a second chance to set their life strait and become something truly amazing"
And finally, what do you have to say to legislators in Canterlot who aren't convinced relaxing mandatory minimums will help solve crime.
"You know, I don't think any of us have a solid solution to eliminating, or even just reducing, crime. But I would tell legislators that their old laws have ruined the lives of ponies who didn't know the consequences of what they were doing, and just needed guidance in their life, not punishment. If mandatory minimums doesn't reduce crime, then the least they can do is fix it to fix the lives who made mistakes."
