Robert Musick of Athens spent two years in jail over seven marijuana plants beginning in March 2018, despite no prior criminal record.

His dedicated court-appointed attorney recently got him released early after an appellate court clarified the mandatory minimum statute for trafficking for attorneys and court officials statewide.

The seven plants Musick had grown — including leaves, stems, stalks and roots — weighed enough for Athens police to charge him with trafficking, though Musick said the pot was strictly for personal use. A veteran of the armed forces, he said he suffered deep depression and terrible anxiety after his parents died a year apart and he was left to care for his brother, who has autism.

“It took a big toll on me,” he said of his parents’ deaths. “I went bat-s*** crazy with anxiety and depression. I could not function around the house. It took me more than an hour to fold a load of laundry.”

Sherry Phillips, his court-appointed attorney, said when she first interviewed him, they discussed going to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and getting put on medication.

Musick told The News Courier he didn’t want to be on medication.

“The stuff they put you on for anxiety, I’ve seen what it does to people, and I don’t want to do that,” he said. “It changes people.”

He tried marijuana, and it seemed to calm him. He knew it was illegal, but he didn’t anticipate being charged with trafficking because he only used it for himself.

His first trial ended in a hung jury. His second ended in conviction. The state’s mandatory minimum law required Limestone County Circuit Judge Robert Baker to sentence Musick to a minimum of three years in prison on the 10-year split sentence he received for the crime. Three years in jail; seven years suspended.

Once in prison

Musick was taken into custody March 8, 2019. In May, he was sent to Kilby Correctional Facility in Mount Meigs, located in Montgomery County.

Kilby is considered one of the roughest prisons in the state. Anyone sentenced to prison is first sent to Kilby while officials there determine where the prisoner should be sent to serve out their term, Phillips said.

“It sucked,” Musick said, a former Marine who trained in Jacksonville, North Carolina, before serving three years in Okinawa, Japan. “To say it is overcrowded is an understatement to say the least.”

Kilby, which was designed to hold 440, routinely holds 1,400, according to Alabama Department of Corrections’ October 2019 statistics.

Phillips said Musick was imprisoned with “murderers, rapists and other violent criminals.”

Musick worried constantly about his brother, whose autism led him to struggle with certain responsibilities, like bill paying, grocery shopping and the like.

“The toughest part of being in there was making sure Troy was taken care of,” Musick said.

On June 11, 2019, Musick was transferred to Decatur Work Release Center. Although it was a work-release center, he couldn’t get a job outside the facility because he was serving time for trafficking. Instead, he was assigned to maintenance at the facility.

Attorney’s discovery

On the outside, Phillips kept Musick in mind even though she was a court-appointed attorney rather than one retained and paid by Musick. While attending a continuing legal education seminar, she found the ruling in Wilson v. State, Cr-17-0814, 2019, which clarified the rules for mandatory minimum sentencing in trafficking cases. In that case, the court ruled in a trafficking case out of Madison County that it is up to the trial court to decide whether to give a suspended sentence. In other words, it gave judges like Baker the option of suspending the entire sentence in a mandatory minimum trafficking case if they see fit, Phillips said.

“It does not force anybody to suspend a mandatory minimum sentence; it just says you can,” she said. “It would be determined on a case by case basis.”

Prior to that, most if not all judges believed they had to give the mandatory minimum in a trafficking case, which in Musick’s case was three years of a 10-year sentence.

Seeks probation, freedom

As quickly as possible, Phillips filed a motion in Limestone County Circuit Court asking the court to suspend Musick’s sentence and order probation. In her motion, filed Dec. 13, 2019, she wrote the following:

• The defendant was convicted of trafficking marijuana March 7, 2018, and the court entered a sentence of three years with the Alabama Department of Corrections under the mandatory minimum statute;

• The appellate court of Alabama has since ruled the trial court has discretion to suspend the entire sentence in trafficking cases; and

• The defendant has no prior record and is a good candidate for a suspended sentence.

Baker reviewed the request and ordered Musick released on probation. Musick walked out of Decatur Work Release Center at 1 p.m. Jan. 29. Had he remained jailed, he would have been released on Christmas Day 2020.

Does law need revision?

Regarding the three-year minimum sentence, Musick said, “I feel it is unfair. When it comes to medical marijuana, I can say that I was so distracted and high-strung from anxiety and depression that I couldn’t do simple tasks. A joint would calm me down, and I could function normally. I don’t know why it works, and I don’t care. It works, and that was all I cared about.”

Looking back, he said he “was blessed in this bad season of my life.”

He said his mother’s best friend, Pat, and his best friend’s mother, Linda, took care of Troy while he was jailed.

“I have been incredibly blessed in the chapter of my life,” Musick said.

In addition to friends caring for Troy, Musick said, “Sherry was assigned to me by the court — that was a blessing right there. When I went to prison, I was able to get into an honor dorm. I was segregated from the rest of the population nearly entire time I was in Decatur. By working in maintenance, I fell into a good bunch of guys. I didn’t worry about them stealing from me or hurting me, and they had skills that I could learn. It made the time easier and go by quicker.”

Phillips advises anyone who has a case similar to Musick’s to contact any lawyer with experience in the mandatory minimum statute, including the latest ruling.