The NACDL Foundation for Criminal Justice preserves and promotes the core values of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the American criminal justice system.
Support Us NowYolando Blount
Yolando Blount, now 41, has served 10 years of a 27-year sentence that she received in 2013 for her involvement in a non-violent, run-of-the-mill tax return scheme in the Middle District of Georgia. Ms. Blount pled guilty based on a sentencing analysis provided by the Probation Department to her counsel, pre-plea, indicating a potential sentence of between six to seven years. Following Ms. Blount’s plea to a plea agreement in which she waived her right to challenge any guideline enhancements at sentencing and on appeal, however, the government advocated a host of enhancements not previously previewed with Ms. Blount. The “piling on” of guideline enhancements is a tactic the government uses to punish people for exercising their right to trial. Essentially, Ms. Blount received a “trial penalty,” without ever having had the benefit of a trial. A survivor of extreme trauma and abuse and despite entering prison with what appeared to her to be a life sentence to her at the time, Ms. Blount’s prison record has been exemplary. She has zero serious disciplinary infractions and has used every opportunity to work and program. She has an excellent release plan with her mother and brother and extended family