Imprisoned music executive James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond claims he should be a free man – thanks to President Donald Trump.
Rosemond’s lawyers are testing the constitutionality and the process of the President’s pardoning powers in an unprecedented new legal argument.
Henchman, born James Rosemond, is serving nine life sentences after he was convicted of numerous drug offenses and ordering the murder of one of 50 Cent’s friends, Lowell “Lodi Mack” Fletcher.
Rosemond maintains that he was the scapegoat of overzealous prosecutors since he was never caught with the drugs.
He also denied arranging the murder of Fletcher, who was convicted of slapping Rosemond’s then 14-year-old son as G-Unit unit members – including Tony Yayo – watched and encouraged the assault.
Rosemond claimed he only hired his associates to “bring” Fletcher to him and never ordered the killing.
In January of 2015, Rosemond sought clemency from the Obama administration, and he continued his efforts when President Trump was elected.
Various celebrities and athletes supported Rosemond’s attempts, including Akon, Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean, Mike Tyson, and late actor Michael K. Williams.
In addition to the above, legendary Hall of Fame football player Jim Brown lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Rosemond.
Jim Brown maintains that he was invited to the White House in October 2018 with his wife, Monique Brown. There, they discussed Rosemond’s case and urged the President to grant him clemency.
Over the next several years, the Browns went to the White House to address Rosemond’s clemency on three separate occasions.
According to affidavits signed by Jim Brown and his wife Monique, on December 18th, 2020, President Trump called the Browns and proclaimed he had decided to commute Rosemond’s sentence to time served.
On the call, President Trump told the Browns and other people in the room with him that he had looked at everything and wanted to “get this guy home for Christmas.”
However, unlike rappers like Kodak Black and Lil Wayne, whom President Trump pardoned, James Rosemond was never freed.
According to his lawyers, President Trump never sent a record of the communication to the Warden of USP Hazleton, where Rosemond is serving his life nine sentences.
President Trump left the White House in January of 2021, and Rosemond’s attempts to make the Biden Administration act on his commutation have been unsuccessful.
Rosemond’s lawyers say Trump completed an irrevocable act of clemency by publicly communicating the clemency decision.
They also argue that the form of an act of clemency does not matter so long as the President communicates it publicly.
Experts say the President can issue an act of clemency in any form he wants – including writing, a phone call, a television broadcast, a social media post, or “by sticking his head out the window and yelling it out on the street.”
His lawyers claim Trump’s decision is irrevocable and that Rosemond, who managed artists like Game, Brandy, Gucci Mane, and others, is unjustly imprisoned.
According to experts who spoke to the Washington Post, Henchman may have a real chance of being released from prison.
“They’ve got a good point, which is that the constitution does not set out a method to the granting of clemency,” said Mark Osler, a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas and Minnesota.
A judge has yet to rule on the case.
