Tim Tyler was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence in federal prison for selling LSD while traveling around the country following the Grateful Dead. He was 25 years old when he was sentenced and has spent nearly half of his life behind bars.
Tim grew up in Connecticut with his mother, but moved to Florida to live with his father when he was a teenager. After graduating from high school, Tim traveled around the country following the Grateful Dead, and became a heavy user of LSD. Unfortunately, he developed mental health problems and was hospitalized multiple times as a teenager and young adult.
He also became entangled in the criminal justice system. In 1991, Tim was arrested twice for selling LSD and received probation both times. Then, in May 1992, Tim sold marijuana and LSD to a confidential informant. Over the next two months, Tim mailed packages containing LSD to the informant. He was arrested in August and charged along with three codefendants, including his father. Tim pled guilty to possession with intent to deliver LSD and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute LSD.
In March 1994, 25-year-old Tim was sentenced to mandatory life without parole in federal prison. Tim’s codefendants received five and 10 year sentences. Timothy’s father died in prison while serving his 10-year prison term.
- Read Rolling Stone‘s“TheNation’s Shame: The Injustice of Mandatory Minimums,” which features Tim Tyler’s story
A Note on Tim's Sentence Calculation
Tim’s life sentence was determined by two factors: his two prior drug offenses and the amount of LSD he was convicted of selling, which included the“carrier”weight of the paper the LSD was placed on. Ten grams or more of LSD(includingthe weight of the carrier) on a third offense triggers a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison. Without the mandatory minimum), Timothy would have received a sentence of 262-327 months under the federal sentencing guidelines. Instead, taxpayers will continue to finance the incarceration of a nonviolent drug offender – at $28,000 a year and rising – for the rest of his life.
To Connect with Tim Tyler please visit his Facebook Page.
To learn more about Families Against Mandatory Minimums, or make a donation, please visit their website, FAMM.org.
Research Courtesy of FAMM.
Stay Tuned after Wrongful Conviction for a special preview for "Legal Wars" - Introducing: Legal Wars
The courtroom can be a battlefield over money, people’s rights, and even their lives. For some cases, the consequences can affect us long after the verdict is read.
Based on extensive interviews and court transcripts, Wondery’s new podcast LEGAL WARS puts you inside the jury box of some of the most famous court cases in American history. Subscribe to Legal Wars today at wondery.fm/
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "c85ba07e-6196-4f6f-9b28-73113d786e26" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/c85ba07e-6196-4f6f-9b28-73113d786e26.mp3" } [1]=> array(6) { ["title"]=> string(105) "S7E11: Ndaba Mandela: Carrying the Torch of Social Justice Inherited from His Grandfather, Nelson Mandela" ["datetime"]=> string(17) "November 12, 2018" ["description"]=> string(1075) "Following in the footsteps of his beloved and iconic grandfather, Ndaba Mandela has taken the torch and run with it. Today, Nelson Mandela’s legacy continues as Ndaba keeps its beacon of hope bright, fueling his message that one person can make a difference. Ndaba is a man passionate about Africa, its people and concerned about its future.
In this candid interview, Ndaba discusses his passion for criminal justice reform and his commitment to a new generation of young Africans that he hopes will be at the forefront of Africa’s development.
Connect with Ndaba Mandela:
Find out more about Ndaba’s foundation, Africa Rising, here.
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "3db97f63-20ff-49f3-b0ac-eef593bf29bf" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/3db97f63-20ff-49f3-b0ac-eef593bf29bf.mp3" } [2]=> array(6) { ["title"]=> string(79) "S7E10: 27 years in and 29 days out, the struggle and triumph of Valentino Dixon" ["datetime"]=> string(17) "November 05, 2018" ["description"]=> string(1303) "Although Valentino Dixon has never played golf, he wouldn’t have survived 27 years in prison–for a crime he did not commit–without it. A few years into his sentence of 39 years to life, Dixon returned to his childhood passion of art to help him cope. He began sketching landscapes of golf courses with color pencils. His breathtakingly detailed sketches led to a profile in Golf Digest magazine. That article in Golf Digest, helped bring other media attention to Dixon’s case and prompted students at Georgetown to help appeal Dixon’s sentence. On September 19, 2018, Dixon was released after the court determined that Dixon, in fact, was not responsible for the murder of 17-year-old Torriano Jackson on a Buffalo street corner in 1991. In this compelling interview, Dixon shares how his art served as a shield in prison, protecting his mind and comforting his soul.
Connect with Valentino Dixon:
To help support Valentino please visit this GoFundMe campaign that was created to give
https://www.gofundme.com/support-valentino-dixon
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "0ae046da-cb32-4862-81ff-34ea1d0c5387" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/0ae046da-cb32-4862-81ff-34ea1d0c5387.mp3" } [3]=> array(6) { ["title"]=> string(73) "S7E9: Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction" ["datetime"]=> string(16) "October 30, 2018" ["description"]=> string(1703) "In her new book Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction Lara Bazelon makes a powerful argument for adopting a model of restorative justice as part of the Innocence Movement so exonerees, crime victims, and their communities can come together to heal.
Tony Wright is one of those exonerees.
Wright endured two trials and 25 years in prison before a jury found him not
guilty for the rape, sodomy and murder of Louise Talley, a 77-year-old woman in
Philadelphia. Mr. Wright, who was only 20 years old when he was arrested in 1993,
signed a confession after being beaten and threatened by the interrogating detectives. He was sentenced to life in prison—he narrowly escaped the death penalty after the jury voted against it 7 to 5. Later DNA testing of he rape kit not only excluded Mr. Wright as a suspect, but also identified Ronnie Byrd as the real assailant. On August 23, 2016, Tony Wright was exonerated, and he became the 344th DNA exoneree in the nation.
Talley’s niece, Shannon Coleman, fought to get Tony Wright behind bars until her daughter Lauren showed her a Rolling Stone article questioning his role in the crime. Coleman then became Wright’s staunchest advocate.
More information about Bazelon’s new book is available here.
Connect with Lara Bazelon:
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "77167658-2347-4130-9a18-0f3f76a7d3c1" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/77167658-2347-4130-9a18-0f3f76a7d3c1.mp3" } [4]=> array(6) { ["title"]=> string(93) "S7E8: Vote YES on Amendment 2: Louisiana Faces Vote to Restore Fairness with Unanimous Juries" ["datetime"]=> string(16) "October 22, 2018" ["description"]=> string(2499) "In forty-eight other states and in federal courts across the country, a conviction requires a unanimous vote – all jurors must agree on whether a prosecutor has met the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. For hundreds of years, dating back to common law before the constitution, the trial by jury has been repeatedly described by Justice Antonin Scalia, quoting Sir William Blackstone, as:
“the most transcendent privilege which any subject can enjoy, or wish for, that he cannot be affected either in his property, his liberty, or his person, but by the unanimous consent of twelve of his neighbours and equals.”
Louisiana is the only state where someone can be sentenced to life without parole without a unanimous decision of a jury. Non-unanimous juries allow conviction even where two citizens have reasonable doubts about the evidence. They are, as a result, unreliable. More than forty percent of all those who have been recently exonerated were (mistakenly) found guilty by non-unanimous juries.
On November 6th, Louisiana voters will have a chance to change that. Amendment 2, a ballot initiative, would require unanimous agreement by jurors for all felony trials.
Jason is joined by with Doug Dilosa of Rising Foundations and Chris Pourciau the Deputy Director of the Unanimous Jury Coalition, through the Promise of Justice Initiative.
Doug Dilosa is himself a victim of non-unanimous jury. DiLosa was wrongfully convicted of second degree murder in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole with less than a unanimous consensus of his guilt. Based on the information and evidence Doug was able to gather on his case, in 2000 the Federal Court reversed his conviction and he was released from prison in January of 2001. For more information about his case please listen to Dilosa’s first interview on Wrongful Conviction, which you can find here.
For more information on how you can help please visit www.unanimousjury.org
Connect with the organization:
https://twitter.com/UnanimousJuryLA
https://www.facebook.com/UnanimousJuryLA/
In this special edition of Wrongful Conviction, Jason Flom is joined by Sadhguru to discuss his revolutionary work that has helped reform prisons throughout India.
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author who ranked amongst the 50 most influential people in India by India Today. Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, the highest civilian award of the year, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.
Probing and passionate, insightful, logical and unfailingly witty, Sadhguru's is a renowned and celebrated speaker. He has headlined talks at the United Nations World Headquarters, the Hindustan Leadership Summit, the Australian Leadership Retreat, Indian Economic Summit, and TED. He is a regular at the World Economic Forum and has also been invited to speak at leading educational institutions, including Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Wharton, and MIT among others.
Three decades ago, Sadhguru founded the Isha Foundation, a non-profit organization with human well-being at its core commitment, supported by over seven million volunteers in over 250 centers worldwide.
Connect with Sadhguru:
@Sadhguru
Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom
About the Show
Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a podcast about tragedy, triumph, unequal justice and actual innocence. Based on the files of the lawyers who freed them, Wrongful Conviction features interviews with men and women who have spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit – some of them had even been sentenced to death. These are their stories.
Recent Episodes
Jason Flom
Jason Flom is the CEO of Lava Records and Lava Music Publishing. Flom previously served as Chairman and CEO at Atlantic Records, Virgin Records, and Capitol Music Group and is personally responsible for launching acts such as Kid Rock, Katy Perry, and Lorde. He is a nationally recognized philanthropist and an expert on criminal justice issues. Flom is a founding board member of the Innocence Project and serves on the boards of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, The Drug Policy Alliance, The Legal Action Center, the NYU Prison Education Program, and VetPaw.