Kevin Allen made two small marijuana sales to a confidential informant, on December 27, 2012 and March 13, 2013, for about $20 in total. In 2014 a jury convicted him on two counts of distribution.
He was first given two concurrent 10-year terms, then sentenced as a habitual offender to life without parole. The New Orleans Advocate's John Simerman reported on the case in "A life sentence for $20 of weed."
In 2022 the Louisiana Supreme Court vacated the life sentence and ordered a sentence that is not constitutionally excessive. On May 31, 2023 he was resentenced to 35 years at hard labor. On May 22, 2024 the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed that sentence in State v. Kevin O'Brien Allen, No. 55,701-KA.
Advocate Donte West is campaigning for his release. Read the full case timeline on Kevin Allen's case page at forgottenprisoner.org/cases/kevin-allen.