Desmond Meade

According to The New York Times, Meade "was born in St. Croix and moved to Miami with his parents when he was 5. His mother worked as a waitress, and his father was a mechanic." He graduated from high school in 1985, then joined the Army as a helicopter mechanic. While in the Army, he began using cocaine, a habit that escalated over the years. In 1990, he faced an Army court martial for stealing from the base; after a three year sentence, he was given a dishonorable discharge. In civilian life, Meade's drug problem continued. He served time in jail for felony drug possession, and after a fight with his brother was convicted of aggravated battery, also a felony. In 2001, he was convicted of possession of a firearm as a felon and sentenced to 15 years in prison. (According to Meade, the gun was in the cupboard of the house where he was staying, and belonged to the owner of the house, not to him, but police gave evidence that they found Meade holding the gun in his hand.) In 2004, however, an appeals court reversed his conviction and he was released. In 2005, after having considered suicide, Meade checked himself into a drug treatment program and began to rebuild his life. He enrolled in Miami-Dade College while living in a homeless shelter, graduating in 2010 with the school's highest honors.{{Cite web |url=https://people.com/politics/desmond-meade-florida-dad-amendment-4-vote/ Meade then enrolled in Florida International University College of Law, the only public law school in south Florida, graduating in 2013. Meade, who had done volunteer work for rights restoration during his years at Miami Dade, joined the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition while he was in law school. ==Activism==

Campaign for Voting Restoration Amendment Florida as of 2018 was one of only three US states to deny voting rights to anyone with a felony record. Because felon disenfranchisement is part of Florida's Constitution, which requires a 60% vote to modify, many efforts to restore voting rights to former convicts had been unsuccessful. Amendment 4 restored voting rights, but not other civil rights, such as the right to run for office or to sit for Florida's bar examination (required for practicing law in Florida.) He also stated that Meade was not eligible to have his civil rights restored because he had applied for a pardon. Florida Secretary of Agriculture Nikki Fried, the only Democrat on the clemency board, and the only board member who voted to restore Meade's civil rights, said that, during the two years of DeSantis's governorship, the board had approved only 30 requests from thousands of applications and called the Florida clemency system "broken." DeSantis, who as governor has veto power over pardons or restorations of civil rights, cited Meade's 1990 dishonorable discharge from the Army as a reason to withhold clemency, saying that Meade could reapply if he cleared up questions about it. Meade reapplied and was again rejected by DeSantis in March, 2021, who again cited his 1990 military court martial, saying "As a former military officer, a dishonorable discharge is the highest punishment that a court martial may render. I consider it very serious."{{Cite web |url=https://thefulcrum.us/voting/desmond-meade-pardon Autobiography Meade's autobiography Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens was published in 2020 by Beacon Press. NPR called it "a compelling story."{{Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/10/07/921051422/let-my-people-vote-tells-of-one-mans-journey-to-getting-1-4-million-back-a-voice ==Personal life==

In December 2012, Meade married his wife Sheena, a labor activist and the mother of five children, whom he has adopted.{{Cite web |url=https://www.netrootsnation.org/profile/sheena-meade/ == Recognition ==

• Time 100 Most Influential People in 2019 • Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Bard College In June 2020, Meade was featured in a RepresentUs video focused on highlighting problems with America's criminal justice system. == References ==