Former Black Mafia Family head Demetrius Flenory aka “Big Meech” penned a jailhouse letter to Russell Simmons, in which he pleads with the music mogul to ask President Obama to issue a pardon. Meech points to the case of Fugees artist John Forte, who in 2008, with the help of Carly Simon, was able to successfully secure a pardon despite being in prison for a drug conviction.

“Most murderers, rapists, and child molesters get much less time than non-violent drug offenders. The punishments don’t fit the crimes when it comes to these drug laws and sentences,” Meech writes.

Part of a 2009 New York State revision made sentencing retroactive, which allows more than 1,000 inmates the opportunity to apply to a court for resentencing and possible release. This is what spurred Big Meech to contact Simmons in the hope that he’ll go to bat for him.

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“Entertainers have used certain drug dealers or street people for street credibility,” Meech writes.

Meech uses T.I. as an example of what he could accomplish as a free man, pointing out the rapper’s “9 or 10 million dollars [T.I.] made the government before he did his first year in prison with his ‘Countdown to Lockdown’ television show,” he writes. “If I was home to take care of all of the legitimate opportunities that my fiance and I have, I could do just as much, if not more.”