Way Quoe Long

Obama denied clemency to Way Que Long on Jan. 18, 2017

Way Quoe Long

Way Quoe Long arrived in the US from Laos in 1975.  He is of Chinese ancestry and grew up in Iowa.  He wished to pursue a music career and moved to California to pursue this interest. 

For Long Way, who has been incarcerated since 1996, life is monotonous.  He spends his mornings in the law library and in the afternoon he practices and writes music and teaches basic guitar and music theory. He also does maintenance on music equipment.   His taste in music is eclectic and he enjoys Classical, Death/Black Metal, and Camp Fire.  He sits in the yard strumming the guitar, sometimes a riff drifts in his mind from the high desert sun and wind.  If it sounds good, he’ll chase it and turn it into a song.

Long has a family who would welcome him home.  He has twin sons, born in 1990 and his wife has never remarried.   He also has 3 older sisters and 2 younger brothers. After 18 years of confinement, Long Way has never given up the thought that he could find some way to find relief from his sentence because of faulty evidence and ineffective counsel.  During his 18 years of confinement for a nonviolent marijuana growing offense he has become a proficient and elegant communicator.  Long’s sentence it 50 years.
 
Long’s description of his case.  In 1995, a government cooperating witness was arrested when the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant on a marijuana farm in Fresno California.  In order to obtain release for himself and his pregnant wife, Long’s accuser indicated Long was the kingpin and Long has been incarcerated since 1996.  The co-operating witness has been free since 2000. 

 This first-time nonviolent inmate went to trial alone not realizing that it would be over a month long ordeal.  One cooperating witness after another rose to testify against him in order to fulfill their plea bargains and reduce their sentences.  His attorney would not permit his own testimony.  Of course the case was complicated and difficult to understand.  All appeals have been denied.  Long believes that he was prosecuted because this was a large marijuana grow operation and the media said that a long-haired Asian had made lots of money from marijuana in Fresno. 

This was a nonviolent marijuana grow operation.  Long has no priors and has always been peaceful. 

This is the most recent note 

Hello Beth

How are you and everyone?  This place processed about 1,000 immigration people the last couple days.  Life in prison for me didn't change much the past 20 years, weekday morning are spent in the law library, afternoons are spent in the band room  or teaching music.  My wife and sons followed their grandparent in the restrauant business. My youngest brother had a business tracking semi trucks, and former Brazilian prisoners.  If I were to be released, with financial help from my youngest brother, I'll start a small business manufacturing specialty musical items, and open the facility after school hours as a free technical training and music center for teenagers interested in manufacturing and music.  When I first came to the U.S. in 1975, most of my after school hours were spent at the local recreation center, which offered nothing but a place for the teenagers to hang out. 

I most likely will go in a recording studio to record the music I wrote while incarcerated and go on the road, if I were to be released, then start the small business.

 

Peace and Love