The former mayor of Detroit has pleaded with President Trump to pardon him after serving seven of his 28-year sentence.
Kwame Kilpatrick, who was mayor of the troubled city between 2003 and 2008, was convicted of a long list of felonies including extortion, bribery, racketeering and corruption. Now, the convicted criminal has made a plea for clemency, on the grounds that he has been forgiven by God.
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“By God’s grace, I have received a pardon from Him, through Christ Jesus. I pray that I will receive the opportunity for Pardon/Clemency from the President of the United States as well,” Kilpatrick wrote in a lengthy blog post, according to Fox News.
Under his current sentence, the former government official is set to be behind bars until Aug. 1, 2037. Kilpatrick explained how he fought hard to prove his innocence early on in his sentence, but “the more I pressed, the more enslaved I became.”
He claimed that he’d been “punished severely” and “chained like a wild animal, shackled around my ankles, waist and wrist,” according to ClickonDetroit.
“My family has forgiven me,” Kilpatrick wrote. “I have asked the people of the city of Detroit for forgiveness many times, and most Detroiters have forgiven me, as well.”
Kilpatrick’s youngest son, Jonas, has produced a rap video saying the 28-year sentence handed down to his father was wildly unfair.
“It’s too much time. There was no crime,” Kilpatrick, who goes by the name JoJo tha DoughBoi, raps in the video.
“Yes, I have made some very bad decisions in my life,” Kwame Kilpatrick wrote in his blog post. “Yes, I betrayed my wife and family because of my own lust and sin. Yes, I failed to deliver on the promises and opportunities that were given to me by the people of Detroit, Michigan, and yes, I have been severely punished for it.”
Now, he insists, it’s time he was granted a second chance by the president.
“Our country has always been the land of second chances. I am hoping, confidently expecting, that I will have the opportunity to boldly move into the next season of my life outside these prison walls,” he concluded.
President Trump granted a pardon to 63-year-old drug criminal Alice Marie Johnson after celebrity Kim Kardashian requested the action. Kilpatrick previously sought a commutation from President Barack Obama, but was denied.
(H/T: ClickonDetroit)