JAY-Z has been wielding the power of his legal connections for various good causes in recent years, and his latest effort is to help free one of his fans from prison.
According to Page Six, Hov and his legal team are advocating for the release of Valon M. Vailes, a North Carolina man who has served over 13 years of a 20-year prison sentence for a non-violent marijuana charge.
JAY-Z’s attorney, Alex Spiro, has made two pleas to a North Carolina judge to grant Vailes “compassionate release.” The first, filed in August, argued he is “a model inmate,” citing completed coursework and drug treatment, and added his family “desperately needs his support and assistance, and he does not present a recidivism risk.”
The motion was dismissed due to Valon Vailes’ COVID-19 vaccination record. Spiro filed a second motion on Wednesday (September 29) in which he argued, “Mr. Vailes’ motion for compassionate release does not mention COVID-19 and does not rely on any COVID-19-related argument as a basis for arguing in favor of a reduced sentence.”
Valon M. Vailes, now 55, was found guilty of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana in December 2007. He was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison with an additional 10-year supervised release. He currently resides at the Otisville Correctional Facility in Otisville, New York.
Vailes’ case landed on JAY-Z’s radar after he penned an emotional latter to the Roc Nation rapper asking for his help. Vailes wrote that he’s a long-time Hov fan and has been touched by his advocacy for the “underprivileged and voiceless.”
“This correspondence is a plea to ask for your help with the intent to campaign for my clemency,” Vailes’ letter read. “13 and a half years is a long time to be still incarcerated over a substance that has become the ultimate green rush.
“While incarcerated, I have lost loved ones. My mother passed in 2020; my grandmother in 2009; my nephew in 2020. Also, my best friend died from COVID in 2021. I have four children, the youngest is 1.4, and 3 grand-daughters.”
“It is a bittersweet reality that I am a casualty and a commodity of this system filled with injustice,” he wrote, adding he feels “some type of way” about remaining behind bars while marijuana becomes increasingly legalized across the country.
That hypocrisy certainly seems to resonate with JAY-Z, who launched a campaign through his MONOGRAM cannabis line earlier this year highlighting the harsh marijuana laws that continue to disproportionately punish weed users.
“Cannabis laws are out of date and disproportionately cruel and punishing when compared to the rest of the legal code,” he said in a statement. “We still don’t have proper regulation for texting and driving in Missouri, but staying home and smoking weed will get you locked up.”
Jay continued, “I created this campaign to amplify the voices of those who have been penalized for the very same thing that venture capitalists are now prospering from with the emerging legal cannabis market. Far too often we forget that these are real people whose everyday lives and futures have been affected by this outdated legislature – people like Bryan Rone, who can no longer pursue a career in sales because of a cannabis-related conviction in 2003.”
JAY-Z & MONOGRAM Looking To Pick Apart 'Hypocrisy' In National Marijuana Laws
Hov is also using MONOGRAM as a vehicle for social change, having recently appointed the first Black CEO in the cannabis industry. He has also set up a $10 million fund to help minority-owned marijuana businesses.
Jay-Z tryin so hard to get attention that he needs the world to know when he tryin to help someone… He’s a talented mc I cannot deny that. But he’s a snake too. I guess that’s what it takes when you want to be on top of the pyramid. Snake moves, back stabbin and fake charity work…SMH
Shut your wild ass up lol you get paid for this hatred??? Better yet you go help free the guy
stop being a hater
Stop being a cocksucker
It’s not about the marijuana it’s about the illegal money he was making selling it. How do u people not understand this
Anything jay gets behind can’t be taken at face value, the last thing he’s trying to do his help people lol
Yeah go ahead Jay and try to free a criminal poisoning his own people and ruining the youth by flooding the streets with drugs.
OK. So you commit a crime being WELL AWARE of the sentencing and mandatory minimums. You get a little over halfway thru your time and start complaining that “it isn’t fair, marijuana is becoming increasingly legal across the US.” I would understand dude crying like a bitch if marijuana was legalized in North Carolina where he commuted this crime. It isn’t. NC doesn’t even have medical marijuana yet, and has some of the harshest mandatory minimum charges in the country. Get back to us when it’s recreationally legal in your state, which will be a while. It will probably have to be federally legalized first. Fucking Jay Z bragging about selling metric tons of coke and getting away with stabbing people thinks this is a good cause? There are plenty of people in prison for murders and sexual assaults they didn’t commit. This guy DID the crime. Take it like a motherfucking man.
stop being a hatin ass cracka
Dude, how u know What? is a white boi? Just askin’, although I agree with u, haters r always waiting in the cut, word!
Boi yall white folks love getting on a hip-hop sight to give insight but don’t know anything about the man while he probably had to sell weed to eat. Meanwhile you had white boys cooking up meth and selling it to ya white folks. Drugs were put in the inner cities by the government fool. It was all by design. Learn you fool