Jerod Fraierson is an incarcerated man that I started writing to after reading his story in the Industrial Workers of the World newsletter, written by Fellow Worker Peter Mukuria (@pittpanther_art on Insta). He is currently serving a 30-year sentence in Red Onion for a minor drug crime; the judge laughed at him as he handed the sentence down. Jerod’s wife, Ms. Dee, and I have started a legal fund for him (the link to contribute is here). Please read on for Jerod’s story.
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The Untold Story of Jerod Fraierson
"Black men born in the U.S. and fortunate enough to live past the age of eighteen are conditioned to accept the inevitability of prison. For most of us, it simply looms as the next phase in a sequence of humiliations. Being born a slave in a captive society and never experiencing any objective basis for expectation had the effect of preparing me for the progressively traumatic misfortunes that lead so many black men to the prison gate. I was prepared for prison. It required only minor psychic adjustments." - George Jackson
So, you ask who Jerod Fraierson is. I am an African American man incarcerated in the State of Virginia, serving a 30-year prison sentence for a non-violent crime. Given such a lengthily imposed draconian sentence, one would assume that I was convicted of a heinous violent crime of some sort. However, this is not the case.
I was born in Richmond, Virginia but was arrested in New Kent County for possession of 1.77 grams of crack cocaine (less than one hundred dollars street value.) At the trial proceedings, I was found guilty by an all-white jury. One juror, a retired state trooper, came up with a 30-year sentence; the prosecution recommended a ten-year sentence. Ultimately the decision was up to the presiding judge, Judge Thomas B. Hoover, who rendered a 30-year prison term. As if that weren't enough, he mockingly suggested that I appeal.
(Read more at the GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/free-jerod-fraierson)
