Edward YoungThe fight to exonerate Edward Young has reached its next phase.
Young, who was slapped with a 15-year federal prison sentence in 2013 for seven shotgun shells found in his home, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case.
While Young has a rap sheet long enough to classify him a career criminal in the eyes of the law, his attorney, Chris Varner of Evans, Harrison, Hackett in Chattanooga, said his client has never been accused of a violent crime or possessing a weapon.
But, due to the Armed Career Criminal Act, a federal law that imposes stiff penalties on certain defendants for possessing firearms or, in this case, shotgun shells, Young is paying the price.
Varner said even the judges who initially sentenced Young and those who upheld his sentence in his 6th Circuit appeal agree that the sentence, though appropriate pursuant to the existing law, was Draconian.