Help Ferrell Scott Buy His Home Back

In 2008, Ferrell Scott was an entrepreneur and single dad. When diesel prices doubled in 2008, and his trucking business was eviscerated, Ferrell, the chief breadwinner for his mother and son, turned to selling marijuana. “I always thought that if I did get caught selling it, they won't do a lot to me. It's just marijuana.” But he was caught and offered 12 years if he would testify against others in his business. “I told them, I wasn’t going to snitch.” On March 26, 2008, Ferrell Scott was tried in federal court and sentenced to life in prison without parole for conspiracy to distribute. He was a victim of the abhorrent third-strike rule and there was no leniency for him despite the nonviolent nature of the drug charges.

“That night, his sister and 16-year-old son came to visit him in jail. “That's when I just cried,” he says, fighting to gain his composure, “cried in front of my son.”

Over the next 13 years in federal prison in Allenwood, PA, Ferrell earned hundreds of hours in vocational training with a nearly unblemished disciplinary record, his one infraction being 30 minutes tardy to work one day. He talked frequently with his son and daughters. He applied for clemency from President Obama, and was denied. He petitioned President Trump, this time with the support of Acting United States Attorney Sam Sheldon, who prosecuted Ferrell’s case and wrote that he “… strongly does not believe that [Mr. Scott] deserves a mandatory life sentence.” Thanks to his pro-bono lawyers, Brittany K. Barnett and MiAngel Cody, Ferrell received clemency on Jan. 21, and is now home, working at his brother’s restaurant, reunited with his children and now grandchildren.

But collateral damage had already visited his family, when Ferrell, the main breadwinner of his extended family, could no longer help pay the bills. As a result, his parents decided to take out a reverse mortgage on their home -- one fully paid for -- and when she died in December 2018, the mortgage company moved to possess their home because the $65,000 loan had become a debt obligation of over $150,000. Ferrell, his son and grandchildren could find themselves without a home, any day. Ferrell reports the house is in dire need of repairs and isn’t livable in the long-term so he has been dreaming about buying his own house back; it was foreclosed on and sold at auction when he went to prison.

When Ferrell was sent to prison in 2008, there were “a lot of unkept promises -- promises that I made to my kids about things that we would do, how things would turn out for them,” he says. “And even though they are older now and they're grown up, I still want to try to do something to fulfill those promises.”

He can’t return to them the lost years, but he can give them his love, support and -- with the help of people who believe in second chances -- a home to share. In Texas, where CBD shops dot practically every corner, 13 years -- much less life -- seems a steep price to pay for selling marijuana. He’s still an entrepreneur, with his eye on an 18-wheeler truck to restart his business, but he needs some help, and generosity, to find a home, rebuild his business, and support his family.

Thank you for supporting Ferrell and his family as we help heal from decades of our country's senseless drug war.