A Louisiana Black man sentenced to life in prison for attempting to steal hedge clippers in 1997 has been granted parole after his case drew national attention.
The Committee on Parole decided by a 3-0 vote Thursday, Oct. 15, that Fair Wayne Bryant would be granted parole.
Bryant, now 63, was convicted for attempted burglary after trying to steal clippers from a carport storage room, and has spent more than 20 years in prison. He has been denied parole three times, in 2015, 2018, and 2019.
In July, Bryant’s case drew criticism after the Louisiana Supreme Court refused to review his life sentence.
Lone dissenter Chief Justice Bernette Johnson called the circumstances of Bryant’s sentencing an attempt to “re-enslave African Americans.”
“This case demonstrates their modern manifestation: harsh habitual offender laws that permit a life sentence for a Black man convicted of property crimes,” she said.
The habitual offender statute allowed prosecutors to pursue a harsher sentence against Bryant because of his four previous felony convictions. Johnson said the statute is an extension of Reconstruction-era practices that resulted in people with property crimes receiving harsher punishments.
After civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, criticized Bryant’s sentencing, he was granted the new parole hearing. At the hearing on Thursday, two committee members were white, one was Black.
Despite his past convictions, including drug offenses, members of the committee were impressed by Bryant’s prison record, which Robert Lancaster of the Parole and Re-entry Clinic at LSU said demonstrated he has matured and been rehabilitated.
Of his past drug habit, Bryant said on Thursday: “I’ve had 24 years to recognize that problem and be in constant conversation with the Lord to help me with that problem.”
In response to the decision to grant Bryant parole, ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Alanah Odoms said the state should do away with the habitual offender statute.
“Now it is imperative that the Legislature repeal the habitual offender law that allows for these unfair sentences, and for district attorneys across the state to immediately stop seeking extreme penalties for minor offenses,” she said.
The conditions of Bryant’s parole include mandatory attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
