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==Further reading==
==Further reading==

Revision as of 04:36, 14 May 2019

Brittany K. Barnett
Born
Brittany K. Byrd
NationalityUS
Alma materSouthern Methodist University[1]
OccupationLawyer
OrganizationBuried Alive
Websitebrittanykbarnett.com

Brittany K. Barnett is an American attorney and criminal justice reform advocate. Through the organization Buried Alive, which she co-founded with Sharanda Jones and Corey Jacobs, she came to national attention when she and her co-counsel, MiAngel Cody, litigated the release of 17 people in 90 days. Her organization has received funding and endorsement from television personality Kim Kardashian West. Barnett is also the founder of Girls Embracing Mothers, a non-profit organization that provides support for girls with mothers in prison.

Early life and education

Barnett is from Texas.[2] She credits her mother's own incarceration with teaching her that persons in prison were often treated as "unworthy of any compassion or concern."[1]

Barnett attended The University of Texas at Arlington,[3] earning bachelor's degree in 2005 and master's degree in 2006 in accounting.[4][5] She received her law degree from Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law.[1] While in law school, Barnett completed internships with the Honorable Nancy F. Atlas in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and with the Honorable Reneé H. Toliver in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.[2] While researching a paper on how race impacted discrepancy in sentencing for the class Critical Race Theory, she came across the case of Sharanda Jones, a woman who had been sentenced to life without parole for a first-time, non-violent drug offense.[1] After submitting her paper, the case plagued her, and she wrote to Jones offering her assistance, and the women began corresponding through email.[1] She later came across the similar case of Donal Clark, who was serving a 30-year sentence for a a first-time, non-violent drug offense.[1]

Career

After graduation, she worked for accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP as a CPA,[6] before for she moved to Winstead PC in the Finance & Banking Practice Group.[2] In 2016, she stopped practicing business law and begin to work on the cases of nonviolent drug offenders to take advantage of a policy under President Barack Obama's administration that came to be known as the clemency initiative.[7]

Barnett is the founder of Buried Alive, a criminal justice reform advocacy organization that she co-founded with Sharanda Jones and Corey Jacobs.[7] The organization seeks to eliminate life without parole as a sentence for drug offenses.[7] Barnett is also the founder of Girls Embracing Mothers, a non-profit organization that provides support for girls with mothers in prison.[6] she is a Practitioner-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University’s Deason Family Criminal Justice Reform Center.[6] The center provides funding, training, and research efforts to Buried Alive.[7] She is also a board member of the ORIX Foundation.[3]

Notable cases

Multiple clients of Barnett took advantage of the clemency initiative President Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder began in 2014.[8] As a liaison between a cocaine dealer and a supplier, Sharanda Jones was charged with "drug conspiracy" in August 1999.[9] The witnesses in her trial consisted of fellow drug offenders who testified in exchange for lighter sentences. Policies at the time allowed the judge to add "enhancements" to her sentence, including her legal license to carry a concealed weapon credited as "furtherance of drug conspiracy," her testimony in her own defense credited as "obstruction of justice," and and weight conversion of powder cocaine to crack cocaine (which carried higher sentences). U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis ultimately calculated her sentence to be 46 years without parole, effectively a life sentence.[9]

Corey Jacobs was 47 years old and 17 years into a life sentence for a first-time drug charge when Obama granted him clemency.[8] The sentencing judge in the case, Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr., wrote a letter advocating for Jacobs’s petition for clemency, explaining that he would not have handed down a life sentence if he had not been required to do so by law.[8] In response to the decision, Barnett said "The president’s mercy and belief in redemption literally saved Corey’s life."[8]

Trenton Copeland was profiled in Rolling Stone magazine for his petition for clemency to President Obama after receiving a life sentence for three nonviolent drug offenses.[10] Copeland was one of 330 commutations the president granted on his last day in office.[11] In response, Barnett said, "I was overjoyed when I received the call from Pardon Attorney Robert Zauzmer telling me the President had granted clemency to my client, Trenton Copeland, who was being buried alive under an unduly harsh sentence of life without parole for a nonviolent drug offense. The President saved Trenton’s life today."[11]

Barnett was on the legal team of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman who was serving the 21st year a life sentence for nonviolent drug offenses.[12] The Obama administration denied her petition for clemency in January 2017, however, after separate meetings with Kardashian West and her husband, Kanye West,[13] President Donald Trump commuted Johnson's sentence.[12] The White House released a statement, saying "While this Administration will always be very tough on crime, it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance."[14]

Awards

Personal life

Barnett lives in Dallas Texas.[18]

Bibliography

  • Barnett, Brittany K. (July 11, 2017). "My Experience with Clemency and the Power of Hope". Federal Sentencing Reporter. 29 (5): 252–254. doi:10.1525/fsr.2017.29.5.252.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Barnett, Brittany K. (July 11, 2017). "My Experience with Clemency and the Power of Hope". Federal Sentencing Reporter. 29 (5): 252–254. doi:10.1525/fsr.2017.29.5.252.
  2. ^ a b c "GIRLS EMBRACING MOTHERS Brittany Byrd '09". The Quad. 44. Fall 2013. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Biz Journals https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/potmsearch/detail/submission/4929602/Brittany_K_Byrd. Retrieved May 14, 2019. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ^ "PricewaterhouseCoopers Company - 27050 Employees - US Staff". Bears Officials Store. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  5. ^ Simnacher, Joe (November 1, 2013). "Good Works Under 40 honors top Dallas community volunteers". Dallas News. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c "Brittany K. Barnett". #cut50. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d Grigsby, Sharon (February 21, 2018). "Non-violent drug sentencing has left thousands of people buried alive in prison". Dallas News. Archived from the original on February 21, 2018. Retrieved May 13, 2019. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ a b c d Horwitz, Sari (December 19, 2016). "Obama adds to historic number of federal prisoners granted clemency". Washington Post. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  9. ^ a b Horwitz, Sari (July 15, 2015). "How a first crack cocaine offense led to a life sentence". Washington Post. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  10. ^ McCray, Rebecca (December 15, 2016). "Meet Trenton Copeland, Who Sees Obama as Last Shot to Leave Prison". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  11. ^ a b HORWITZ, SARI (January 19, 2017). "Obama grants final 330 commutations to nonviolent drug offenders". Washington Post. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  12. ^ a b Wagner, John; Horwitz, Sari (June 6, 2018). "Trump has commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman whose case was championed by Kim Kardashian". Washington Post. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  13. ^ Kahn, Mattie (March 8, 2019). "Shawn Holley Will Free You Now". Glamour. Condé Nast. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  14. ^ "President Trump Commutes Sentence of Alice Marie Johnson". The White House. June 6, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  15. ^ "2013 Winner and Finalists". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  16. ^ Pretorius, Sally. "Annual Meeting Update". Texas Young Lawyers Association. Archived from the original on March 3, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "Outstanding Young Lawyer Award". Dallas Association of Young Lawyers. Archived from the original on December 25, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Kahn, Nikki (June 10, 2015). "Brittany K. Byrd is photographed at her home in Dallas, Texas, on..." Getty Images.

See also

Further reading

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