Presidential Pardon Application · Pending
More than a decade ago, in the depths of an opioid addiction that began with painkillers prescribed for a military injury, I sold my closest friend, Justin, a gram of heroin — at the same price I'd paid for it. He died. I was charged federally, accepted responsibility from the first day, and served a five-year sentence. Today I study the drug supply at UCLA — and my presidential pardon application is pending with the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
Verify independently: the petition is searchable by name or case number in the DOJ clemency case database ↗.
Justin and I were best friends, and we were both addicted to heroin. In 2014 I sold him a gram — at cost, the same price I'd paid, the same as we always did — and he died. Federal prosecutors charged me with conspiracy to distribute heroin. There was no commercial trafficking, no profit, no organization; there was addiction, and there was grief. I said so from the first day, pleaded guilty, and served my five years.
I got to recovery in March 2015 — in jail, not because of it. I served my federal time at FCI Dublin. The week I left custody, I enrolled at Portland State University; three years later I graduated summa cum laude. A federal judge terminated my supervision early, "in the interests of justice." Since then I've published peer-reviewed research in JAMA, founded the overdose-prevention nonprofit Beats Overdose, helped shape Oregon drug policy, and joined UCLA's Drug Checking Los Angeles, where my research on the illicit fentanyl supply has been covered by The New York Times, NPR, and CNN.
A pardon would not erase what happened. Nothing does. It would recognize what I've done with every day since — and let me carry this work everywhere it's needed.
I'm not relitigating my case — I pleaded guilty and served my sentence. These are simply the words of the people who were in the room.
"…[F]rom the very beginning of this case, until today's sentencing, Ms. Godvin has been consistent in taking ownership of her actions. Much more so than many other defendants I've seen in her shoes."
"I'm not sure that more prison is necessarily the answer for Ms. Godvin. I think that with a lot of structure on supervised release she could be very successful."
— Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Bolstad, at sentencing, December 21, 2015 — where the 60-month sentence was the government's own request, a downward variance the prosecutor asked the Court to grant
"You, Ms. Godvin, are, at your core, a good person who got very twisted up in this hideous habit."
— The sentencing judge, December 2015
"…grossly disproportionate to her actual behavior… not related in any way to commercial drug trafficking."
— S. Amanda Marshall, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon whose office prosecuted the case, writing in support of the petition
Justin's mother supports the pardon "with her whole heart."
— From her letter to the Office of the Pardon Attorney
The sentence ended years ago. The conviction didn't. A decade of recovery, degrees, and peer-reviewed science later, it still follows me into rooms it has no business being in — and for a federal conviction, a presidential pardon is the only remedy that exists.
I've been interviewed by The New York Times, CNN, NPR, and ABC's Tamron Hall Show, and I say yes to journalists. Bios and a headshot are on the press kit page; my press history is here. Counsel for the petition: Kyle Singhal, Hopwood & Singhal PLLC, Washington, D.C.