The Houston Texans are 4-4 and are led by rookie QB CJ Stroud, the runaway favorite for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. After his record-setting Week 9 performance, the 22-year-old didn’t want to talk about himself. Instead he wanted to shed light on America’s criminal justice system, how it had impacted his family and why it needs to be changed.
“Our criminal justice system isn’t right, and it’s something that I need to probably be a little more vocal about because what he’s going through is not right,” Stroud said last Sunday. “I think just letting it be known that it’s not just my dad’s situation, but the whole criminal justice system is corrupt.”
Three Strikes Law Meant CJ’s Father Would Go Away For Life
Coleridge Bernard Stroud III, CJ’s father, was sentenced to a 38 years to life for pleading guilty to carjacking, kidnapping, and robbery charges in a 2015 incident that involved drug use.
Coleridge had a prior felony conviction as well as two prior strike convictions under the California “three strikes” law, which meant he would be sentenced to life in prison.
Coleridge contends the court abused its discretion by denying his motion to strike his prior strikes under People v. Superior Court (Romero 1996), case precedent.
In a filed motion, Coleridge argued that the court should exercise its discretion and dismiss his prior strike convictions because they did not result in violence common to robbery offenses, as no one was injured, the offenses were remote in time, and he had since been rehabilitated. The punishment under the “three strikes” law was disproportionate to the severity of his current offense, and his criminal history results from drug addiction.
California’s “three strikes” law has been studied by numerous legal scholars and institutions, and the racial disparities, negatively skewed towards Blacks, has been well documented. Blacks receive the greatest frequency of third strike sentences and are incarcerated at a rate of almost 13 times higher than whites.
An Exceptional Young Man
That CJ chose a moment of great personal triumph to talk about a larger issue impacting America speaks volumes of the young man.
“What I’ve been battling with is trying to still be a family man, still help out, and still be a football player and do my job,” he said after his record-setting day. “It’s been tough.”
CJ was only 13 years old when his dad was arrested, and he is the youngest of four. Having that kind of trauma as a kid, developing into an elite athlete and becoming the financial provider for your family at 22 is unfathomable. All while playing the most demanding position in sports. That enormity of it all would crush just about anybody.
“I got to talk to my dad a little bit this week,” he said. “And I’m praying to God that something can happen that he can get out and come to one of these games. I’ve been praying for him a lot.”
Seeing reform in the criminal justice system is something society would benefit from, not just the Stroud family. Hopefully someone is praying for CJ too, that the weight of it all doesn’t become too much.
