Michael Thompson

Michael Thompson (b. c. 1951), Flint, Michigan resident who served nearly 25 years for a cannabis sale with associated firearm enhancements — the longest nonviolent cannabis sentence in Michigan history. In 1994, Thompson sold approximately three pounds of cannabis to a police informant who was a close friend. A subsequent search of his home found 13 firearms, most of them antiques in a locked gun safe; his wife testified that most were hers. Because of a prior felony drug record he was ineligible to possess firearms. Convicted in 1996 under Michigan's habitual-offender law (fourth-offender enhancement), he was sentenced to 42 to 60 years. Michigan legalized adult-use cannabis by ballot in 2018. In December 2020 Governor Gretchen Whitmer commuted Thompson's sentence, and he was released January 28, 2021 from a facility in Jackson. He had contracted COVID-19 while incarcerated. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel publicly supported his release. Thompson subsequently founded the Michael Thompson Clemency Project, partnering with the Last Prisoner Project to advocate for other incarcerated cannabis offenders. His story was the subject of the 2022 documentary The Sentence of Michael Thompson (Synonymous Pictures, XTR, MSNBC; financed in part by Cresco Labs), which won audience awards at SXSW and the Chicago Critics Film Festival. His case became a focal point for legalization-era racial-justice critiques of drug-war incarceration.