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Book Reviews: Poster Child: The Kemba Smith Story
On September 1, 1994, Kemba Smith, the girlfriend of a $4 million crack cocaine ring leader, turned herself in to the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va. She was convicted of a drug conspiracy and was sentenced to 24½ years in prison, despite the prosecutor admitting that she had “never handled, used or sold any of the drugs involved.” Smith’s subsequent struggle for release gained national attention, culminating in a commutation six years into her sentence from President Bill Clinton in December 2000.