In 2008, Fate Winslow was approached by a plain-clothed undercover police officer in Shreveport, Louisiana, looking for some marijuana.
Winslow, recently homeless at the time, borrowed a friend’s bike and came back 10 minutes later with two small bags of marijuana worth $20, according to the Innocence Project New Orleans, who represented Winslow.
The officer arrested Winslow. And because Winslow had three priors — a burglary of a business when he was 17 in 1985, a car burglary in 1995 and possession of cocaine when he was 36 — the $20 sale landed Winslow a life sentence, according to IPNO.
