Deadhead imprisoned for selling LSD has life sentence reduced by Obama

On Tuesday, the White House announced President Barack Obama has commuted sentences for 111 federal inmates, including the life sentence handed down to Grateful Dead fan Timothy Tyler, whose case has been at the center of the argument over mandatory maximum sentencing for drug offenses.

A young man with a history of "psychosis and bipolar disorder" as well as abuse at the hands of his step-father as a child, according to a 2013 profile by Business Insider, Tyler had been convicted twice for drug offenses.

It was his third conviction, for selling LSD and marijuana to a friend who was also a police informant in 1992, that earned him a life sentence. While his first two convictions only netted him probation each time, this conviction, the "third strike" led to his sentence in 1994.

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During his late teen years and early twenties, Tyler was a Deadhead, part of the large community of fans who toured the country following the Grateful Dead. In fact, Tyler was on his way to Dead show in California when the charges for this third offense were filed against him.

Tyler's father had helped with the sale that landed him in prison; his father, who had a prior conviction for marijuana, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role but died in 2001, eight-and-a-half years into that term.

Tyler had previously rejected a plea deal that would have meant a far lesser sentence, according to CNN, because he refused to testify against his co-defendants, which included his father.

His guilty plea, Tyler said, was given, in part, because his public defender didn't fully explain the guidelines of the mandatory minimum sentencing, meaning factors like his age and mental health would not be taken into consideration.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2014, Tyler's sister Carrie said though he has received some psychiatric treatment while imprisoned, Tyler spent most of his time in solitary confinement which adversely impacted his mental state. Tyler reportedly wasn't even allowed to listen to music in prison until he was given an iPod in 2012.

Tyler's case has gained support not just within the Grateful Dead community, but from organizations like Families Against Mandatory Minimums. At the time of his commutation, a Change.org petition in support of Tyler had over 420,000 signatures.

And, as noted in a 2015 Vice profile, the support for Tyler was bipartisan: in an op-ed, Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who unsuccessfully ran for the party's presidential nomination, name-checked Tyler in his call for changes to the mandatory minimum laws.

But Tyler is far from alone, as the sheer numbers of Obama's commutations on Monday indicate. His is just one story of many. The president last year made an overhaul of the mandatory minimum sentencing system a priority as part of his call to reform the criminal justice system.

While legislation has stalled on the national level, Obama has continued to grant clemencies at a rate that far outpaces his predecessors.

Obama has long called for phasing out strict sentences for drug convictions, arguing they lead to excessive punishment and incarceration rates unseen in other developed countries.

White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said the commutations underscored the president's commitment to using his clemency authority to give deserving individuals a second chance. He said that Obama has granted a total of 673 commutations, more than the previous 10 presidents combined.

Of Monday's commutations, 35, including Tyler's, were for life sentences. But Tyler will still have to wait a bit longer for freedom; he's currently scheduled for release August 30, 2018, conditioned upon enrollment in residential drug treatment.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press