“So what did Butler do to get life in ‘the Alacatraz of the South’? Possession of small amounts of marijuana and crack cocaine found on him after police stopped and frisked him as he rode away from them on his bicycle. Last October 3, it appeared it had. On that date, the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, ruling that New Orleans police officers ‘illegally searched Butler and seized his drugs without probable cause.’ The state Supreme Court then upheld the original life-without-parole sentence — because he had ridden his bicycle on a sidewalk as he rode away from police!”
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2013/jul/10/louisiana_drug_lifer_struggles_f
