After serving time for riding in a car where a gun was found, Charlottesville civic leader Whitmore Merrick Jr. decided he needed his Second Amendment rights restored in order to lawfully possess a firearm in his own right.
While working with Charlottesville’s Home to Hope program, Merrick and his colleague Shadee Gilliam explained this common legal dilemma to students from the Decarceration and Community Reentry Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law to shed light on the real-world issues people face after prison.
Merrick and Gilliam work as reentry peer navigators — that is, they help people who are released from prison learn how to navigate their return to communities. Among other issues, because those convicted of felonies are generally prohibited from carrying firearms or even pepper spray, they are in constant jeopardy of being re-arrested — not only if they act in self-defense, but also if they ride in a car with a gun owner, live with a gun owner or visit someone who has a gun in their home. (The legal term for being caught in the presence of guns is “constructive possession,” and it is a felony in some states.)
The students decided to help Merrick, Gilliam and others petition Virginia circuit courts to restore their right to bear arms.
“It meant a lot to me because I’ve been defeated in the court system so many times, so I had lost a lot of confidence in the system,” Merrick said. “That was very, very helpful to have someone from the outside to assist...
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