Justice for Duc Ta

I am a concerned citizen of the State of California. I have learned of the egregious sentence handed down in the case of Michael Duc Ta, a young man who at the age of 16 drove a car from which another young man shot a gun. This crime resulted in no injuries.

Duc and his co-defendants, the boy who brought the gun and the boy who shot the gun, received sentences of 35 years to life. There was no physical evidence showing that Duc handled or fired the gun yet he was given a 20-year gun enhancement on his life sentence. (The California Appellate Court reduced the sentence for the boy who brought the gun to 15 years to life, but Duc received no relief.) Because the crime was ruled gang-related, Duc was given an additional 15-year gang enhancement, even though he continues to claim hes not a member of any gang and there is no proof, such as tattoos, monikers or field investigation cards to show his affiliation to any gang.

Given Ducs lack of prior record, his age and that no one was injured in this crime, this sentence is too harsh!

Duc has been in custody and then prison for this crime since May of 1999, over four years for a crime that should have received a much less substantial sentence. Since being transferred to state prison, Duc has been held at a Level 4-180 yard, the most restrictive level of prison. Given that the U.S. Supreme Court had made clear in Berger vs. the United States, 295 U.S. 78 (1935) that the prosecutions main job is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done, true justice needs to be done in this case as it should have been in the first place.

We, the undersigned, respectfully request that you, as the Governor of the State of California, in the interest of true justice, commute Michael Duc Tas sentence to time served or at the very least reduce his sentence to a more appropriate term, allowing him to fulfill his full potential as a respectable and solid citizen of society.