Kodak Black Appeals "Harsh" Prison Sentencing

Kodak Black is challenging his three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for lying in order to purchase firearms, as he claims that he was sentenced under the guidelines for a convicted criminal, which he technically is not. In the appeal papers filed on February 12th, Kodak has argued that the judge who ordered his sentencing made the mistake of using what he contends to be the wrong sentencing guidelines. Kodak believe that the guidelines that the judge abided by to sentence him were reserved for convicted felons; however, Kodak avoided this label when he pled “no contest” in a previous case, thus his lawyers note that these specific, harsher guidelines shouldn’t have applied to him in the sentencing for this case.

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The previous case for which Kodak pled “no contest” involved strong-arm robbery charges in Florida. Due to his plea, the courts declined to convict him, which allowed him to keep his civil rights and made him eligible to have the case sealed. Since he was never convicted in this case, then, he shouldn’t have been sentenced under the guidelines for convicts.

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His current case occurred last fall when he was charges for making a false statement in the acquisition of a firearm after he tried to purchase a semiautomatic weapon from a firearms dealer. Kodak took a plea deal and was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison and three years probation. He has since spoken out about the inhumane treatment to which he and other inmates have been subjected, even alleging that he was locked in a bathroom on one occasion and drugged by guards on another.