EXCLUSIVE: The timely documentary The Sentence of Michael Thompson will be reaching a big audience soon, courtesy of MSNBC and XTR’s streaming service Documentary+.
The cable news channel will premiere the short film on October 30, with the Documentary+ debut coming on November 1. The film, directed by Kyle Thrash and Haley Elizabeth Anderson, focuses on Thompson, “the longest serving non-violent offender in Michigan history,” who became the subject of an intense legal battle to win his freedom. [See teaser below] “In 1994, Thompson was sentenced to 42 to 60 years in prison for selling three pounds of cannabis to a close friend turned police informant, and he remained there even as Michigan legalized the recreational use of marijuana,” a release about the film said.
Prior drug possession convictions contributed to his draconian sentence, as did a dubious weapons charge (police searched his residence after his arrest and found some antique guns and some other weapons that Thompson’s wife said belonged to her).
He was classified as a habitual offender, which gave a judge latitude to sentence him harshly. Which is exactly what happened. “Habitual offender is what I was up under.
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