Mark Johnson was convicted in 1990 for the delivery of a controlled substance in the amount of 3 tenths of a gram (less than the weight of a dollar bill). He received the maximum sentence on his conviction as a first time offender. He was sentenced to 99 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. This charge today is a State Jail Felony with the maximum punishment of 24 months. Mr. Johnson is a veteran of the US Air Force, and prior to this conviction sought treatment for substance abuse in the VA Hospital. 

The cost of continual incarceration on Mr. Johnson is $24,000 a year. Twice the cost of sending 2 children to school in the same state. It is absurd to continue such a Draconian sentence in today's standards at such costs. The conviction is 20 years old. 

There has been recent change in law regarding the manner in which Mark Johnson was convicted. The "Texas Corroboration'' law says: a conviction based solely on the testimony of a Confidential Informant alone cannot stand. This is the case in the conviction of Mark Johnson. What is even more relevant is that there is another individual that has confessed to committing the crime that Mark Johnson is being held on to a term of 99 years. 

I voluntarily sign my name to this Petition to ask the Courts, Governor, Attorney General, Board of Pardons and Paroles, Members of Media, and State Representatives to pardon Mark Johnson in this matter. I am a tax paying citizen of the state, and consider this a waste of my tax dollars. I consider this an injustice as to the extremity of the sentence in this mater. I consider it a miscarriage of justice to allow the conviction to stand when there is evidence of another person committing the crime. I consider it a miscarriage of justice when the penalty for the crime has been reduced by the legislature, but Mark Johnson's 99 year sentence remains in effect at a cost to me as a tax payer. I consider it an injustice when laws have been enacted to remove a fundamentally unfair trial, and Mark Johnson has no recourse for a 20 year old non violent conviction of a petty magnitude.

I am signing this petition in support of justice for Mr. Mark Johnson. I understand Tulia is only 60 miles away from Amarillo, and is the cause of the Texas Corroboration law. I am signing this petition in hopes my voice is heard just as I do when I vote to elect someone into office. Thank You