Brother's Drug Sentence Ignited Woman's Crusade

Arthur Curry, Derrick's father, met Stewart at one of her meetings after his son was arrested. He said she taught him how to advocate for his son, now 37.

"Julie attended the trial with me and my family, and she was at the sentencing," said Curry, a former Upper Marlboro resident and longtime educator who now lives in North Carolina. "I had absolutely no experience. I didn't know what to expect. Just to have someone there who could give me information . . . was so important. We are forever grateful for Julie and FAMM and their intervention in our lives."

Indeed, Arthur Curry credits Stewart and her organization for helping him put the spotlight on his son's case. In 2001, eight years after he entered a federal prison, Derrick Curry was released in an eleventh-hour pardon by then-President Clinton before leaving office.

That Stewart would end up fighting for justice for thousands of men and women, some she will never meet, is not surprising, friends said. They describe the mother of two young girls as deeply committed to her cause and say she has spent countless hours advising and comforting families affected by mandatory minimums.

"For her and so many who get involved in this issue, it starts with your loved one, but then you meet so many people, and you realize it could be anyone's loved one that this could happen to," said FAMM colleague Monica Pratt. "It makes you feel compassion and anger about the ways these laws affect people."

A self-described libertarian, Stewart said she believes lawbreakers should face penalties. But the time, she said, should fit the crime.

"I think it's easy for members of Congress to forget how long 10 years is," Stewart said. "Sentences have gotten so inflated in the last 20 years that we no longer think about what that means to the person serving the sentence or their family."

Besides fighting to get mandatory minimums repealed, FAMM also works to change some states' sentencing laws and serves as a resource for organizations across the country.

"Julie is a very effective advocate, and she has a high degree of credibility," said Judge William W. Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, the first chairman of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. "She always has her facts down, and she firmly believes in what she is doing."

Stewart's work and that of her colleagues have led to some victories for FAMM. In 1991, Stewart went to work on Michigan's "650 lifer law," which required life sentences for anyone convicted of crimes involving 650 grams or more of cocaine or heroin.

FAMM hired someone to work against the Michigan law, and in 1998, the law was changed to reduce the mandatory sentence from life to 15 or 20 years. Michigan later repealed most of its mandatory minimum drug sentences, Stewart said.

Stewart said her goal is to see the end of such laws across the nation, just as similar laws were repealed 40 years ago. In the 1950s and 1960s, she said, drug offenders faced mandatory minimum sentences under the Boggs Act of 1951, named for its sponsor, then-Rep. Hale Boggs (D-La.). The law was repealed by Congress in 1973 after it became clear the sentences served no deterrent value, she said.

"That reminds us that it can be done and the pendulum will swing back to more reasonable sentencing," Stewart said of the Boggs Act. "I have to remain optimistic, or else I would close up shop."