Jay-Z’s billion-dollar status has allowed him to cop luxury timepieces that he gets to flex in the Hamptons. However, it’s also afforded him an exceptional legal team that he’s brought on numerous times to help fight against injustice. A 55-year-old fan named Valon Vailes who is currently sitting behind bars on a 20-year-sentence for cannabis possession is now being backed by Hov and his attorney Alex Spiro in an attempt to get him out of prison on a “compassionate release.”
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Per PageSix, Spiro filed a second motion requesting for a “compassionate release” after the first motion was dismissed over Vailes vaccination record. Spiro said that the request for his release never made any mention of COVID-19 or “any COVID-19-related argument as
a basis for arguing in favor of a reduced sentence.”
Vailes was found guilty of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute more than one ton of marijuana. He was hit with a 20-year sentence, along with an additional 10-year sentence.
Vales initially sent a letter to Jay-Z from New York’s Otisville Correctional Facility pleading for help to fight for his release. “This correspondence is a plea to ask for your help with the intent to campaign for my clemency,” the letter read. “13 and a half years is a long time to be still incarcerated over a substance that has become the ultimate green rush.”
Vailes continued to explain that his family is in need of him to help support them, especially with four children and three granddaughters. “It is a bittersweet reality that I am a casualty and a commodity of this system filled with injustice,” he concluded.
After Jay-Z read the letter, he brought on Spiro who has been fighting for Vailes.
“Mr. Vailes has exhausted his administrative remedies with the [Federal Bureau of Prisons]; extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant compassionate release in his case; the relevant factors support release; and Mr. Vailes is not a danger to the community,” Spiro argued. “It is unjust to allow Mr. Vailes to remain in prison when, if sentenced under the current law, and with his good behavior credits, he would have already been released.”