Conditional pardon for man sentenced under ‘kingpin’ statute

Gov. Ralph Northam in his last weeks in office granted a conditional pardon to a South Boston man convicted of nonviolent drug offenses under a state law colloquially known as the “kingpin” law.

Jesse Dunaway was the only person in Virginia serving a life-without-parole sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. The conditional pardon will reduce Dunaway’s sentence from life to 20 years.

Fairfax attorney Jon Sheldon, who represented Dunaway in his efforts to obtain a conditional pardon, said the process from filing the pardon petition to Northam’s decision lasted “about four years.”

Dunaway’s sentence stems from a 2006 conviction in Halifax County Circuit Court of attempted manufacture of marijuana, conspiracy to distribute less than half an ounce of marijuana and organizing a “continuing criminal enterprise.”

While others involved in the case pleaded guilty, Dunaway refused to cooperate with the prosecution, which Sheldon said led to the life sentence.

“[Dunaway] wouldn’t cooperate with the prosecutors, so he was prosecuted as they could under this law, was convicted and given a mandatory life sentence,” Sheldon said. “And because it wasn’t a proportional, predictable affair, we challenged and asked the governor to issue a pardon.”

At the time of his life sentence, Dunaway was 23 years old.

Sheldon said Dunaway is the only person ever convicted under Virginia’s “continuing criminal enterprise law,” otherwise known as the “kingpin” law. Had Dunaway been prosecuted for possession with the intent to distribute instead, Sheldon said, his sentencing guidelines would have been around six years.

“It’s awkward, and it results in a mandatory life sentence for selling drugs,” Sheldon said of the statute. “Since any drug seller that sells more than those small amounts listed in the statute could qualify for it, no prosecutor ever uses it.”

“We don’t want to make a request to the governor that is really hard for him to fulfill. We want to make one that has some objective measure for the governor to compare it to and say, ‘Well, that’s an overwhelmingly reasonable request.’ And that’s what we tried to do.”

– Jon Sheldon, attorney

Sheldon said the decision to ask for a 20-year sentence came after a review of sentencing guidelines for similar offenses, adding that “20 years would have been the top end of what he would have gotten.” Sheldon added that, in his research, 20 years was the most anyone was sentenced for what Dunaway was convicted of.

“We don’t want to make a request to the governor that is really hard for him to fulfill,” Sheldon said. “We want to make one that has some objective measure for the governor to compare it to and say, ‘Well, that’s an overwhelmingly reasonable request.’ And that’s what we tried to do.”

Sheldon, who handles a multitude of post-conviction cases similar to Dunaway’s, praised Northam for changes to the pardon process.

“He did a really good job at making the system more transparent,” Sheldon said.

Over the years, Dunaway’s case gained significant attention from groups and individuals that sought to shorten his sentence. A petition on the website Change.org had received over 6,600 signatures from people who sought clemency for Dunaway. Other groups, including Families Against Mandatory Minimums and Virginians for Judicial Reform, also supported Dunaway’s efforts to get out of prison.

Per the conditions of the conditional pardon, Dunaway will be released on June 1, 2025, after which he will spend three years on supervised probation. Sheldon said that Dunaway will be “a value to the community when he is released.”

“He’s the best guy,” Sheldon said. “He was so great at keeping communication between correctional officers and inmates and is well respected by everybody.”

Sheldon added that Dunaway has a job lined up upon his release and looks forward to being able to see his children outside of prison.