More info from the team at Psymposia:
Update: (July 26, 2020 / 1:38 PM): Psymposia has confirmed that Clyde Apperson’s request to be released to home confinement prior to his October 11, 2028 release date has been approved, and he is currently at a residential reentry center in Seattle pending full release. Apperson was arrested in 2000 with William Leonard Pickard, and was sentenced to 30 years without the possibility of parole.
This is one of the most exciting stories I’ve seen since I first started following psychedelic news back in 2006. Not only is it positive, but it’s both completely unexpected and uncharacteristic of how drug war prisoners are typically treated. It seems that the COVID-19 pandemic is the catalyst that influenced the decision to release Pickard; I wonder if it has anything to do with Apperson’s release too? Perhaps something bigger is going on.
Freeing these two men, who were locked up because they committed nonviolent victimless “crimes” 20 years ago, has been a long time coming. Maybe this will start a trend. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we started to see even more people in this situation freed from unjust imprisonment? I certainly think so.