Richard DeLisi

Richard DeLisi (b. February 10, 1949), Florida resident recognized by the Last Prisoner Project and major news outlets as the longest-serving nonviolent cannabis prisoner in the United States at the time of his 2020 release. On September 19, 1988, DeLisi was arrested in Polk County after being recruited by longtime associate J. J. White — unbeknownst to him, a paid informant for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement — into a plan to smuggle roughly 1,500 pounds of cannabis from Colombia. Charged with Trafficking in Cannabis, Conspiracy, and violation of Florida's RICO statute, his entrapment defense failed at trial. Florida sentencing guidelines recommended 12 to 17 years; the judge imposed three consecutive 30-year terms for a total of 90 years, reportedly influenced by an edited clip from Geraldo Rivera's 1986 American Vice in which DeLisi appeared to brag about smuggling profits. DeLisi had a prior 1975 RICO conviction for cannabis smuggling. He served 32 years (1988–2020). Released December 8, 2020 from South Bay Correctional Facility after gain-time restoration, he had lost his wife Colette, son Steven, and both parents during his incarceration, and his daughter Ashley was paralyzed after a 2018 car crash. Legal work was led pro bono by Chiara Juster, Elizabeth Buchanan, and Michael Minardi through the Last Prisoner Project's Free DeLisi campaign. Post-release he co-founded cannabis brand DeLisioso with his son Rick, partnered with Florida operator Trulieve.