Lamont & Lawrence Garrison

Sentence: 19 ½ years & 15 ½ years

Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine (10 kg) and crack (500 g)
Priors: None
Year sentenced: 1998
Age at sentencing: 25
Projected release date: June 2, 2009 & February 8, 2012
 
Born six minutes apart from each other on an April morning, identical twins Lawrence and Lamont Garrison were inseparable.  As they grew older, the brothers remained close, dressing alike, hanging out with the same friends, and always supporting each other. Both Lawrence and Lamont dedicated themselves to their studies in high school and were accepted by Howard University.
 
Lawrence and Lamont thrived in college, earning excellent grades while working part-time to pay their tuition. They both planned to become lawyers to provide fair representation to everyone in the justice system.  A month before the twins’ graduation, the owner of a Maryland auto body shop, who had been arrested as a major player in a cocaine and crack conspiracy, began implicating people to reduce his sentence. He told police that he had supplied Lawrence and Lamont with kilos of crack and cocaine every week.  Other conspirators soon followed, testifying that they too had witnessed these transactions. 
 
At the time of their arrest, Lawrence and Lamont were employed full-time as juvenile counselors in Maryland.  They had their Bachelors degrees and had held jobs at the Department of Justice and the Department of Energy. The twins only contact with the owner of the auto body shop occurred because a mechanic next door was performing extensive work on their grandmother’s car. Lawrence and Lamont would call the owner to check in with the mechanic about the job’s progress.
 
Sure of their innocence, the Garrisons went to trial.  They were appointed attorneys who often fell asleep during the court proceedings.  The twins' mother reports that the lawyers failed to gather information and witnesses that would have disproved the government’s shaky case against Lawrence and Lamont.
 
Though there was no evidence to prove that the twins used drugs, sold drugs, or even knew about the illegal activities of the shop owner, they were convicted. No narcotics, drug paraphernalia, or any other incriminating evidence was found on the twins or in their house. Their drug tests came up completely clean. Moreover, there is absolutely no proof that Lawrence or Lamont benefited from their alleged sale of enormous amounts of drugs. The twins were living in their mother’s house and owed thousands of dollars in college loans.  Lawrence and Lamont were sentenced to 15.5 and 19.5 years, respectively, largely due to the testimony of coconspirators. Lamont’s sentence was increased by three years for obstructing justice because he testified in his own defense at trial.
 
The owner of the auto body shop gained tremendously from implicating Lawrence and Lamont: he received a three-year sentence and is now free. Meanwhile, Lawrence and Lamont have been in federal prison for over ten years. While incarcerated, the twins have experienced many hardships, including serious illness. Lawrence was exposed daily to cancer-causing radiation at his prison UNICOR job.
 
Through the support of their loving family, the twins have managed to maintain a positive attitude. Lawrence and Lamont continue to help others in prison, just as they did outside. Both men benefited from the crack retroactivity amendment passed in 2007 and had three years taken off their sentences. The lives of the Garrison twins and their family have been forever altered by the criminal justice system.

 

Updated 9/28/09 - Lawrence and Lamont benefitted from the retroactive sentencing guideline for crack cocaine.  Lawrence is now free but Lamont will remain in prison until 2012.