Steffon Josey-Davis wanted to work in law enforcement, but trusting law enforcement in an oversight over a legal weapon put Josey-Davis in danger of spending years in a New Jersey prison. Josey-Davis went to the NAACP for help, only to get ignored. Today, Chris Christie signed a full pardon for Josey-Davis after he accepted a plea deal that kept him out of prison.

What a long, strange trip it’s been to a restoration of civil rights for Josey-Davis:

He was told he could pick up his handgun on Monday. When he showed up at the Highland Park Police Department that day, he didn’t get his gun – instead he was put in handcuffs and charged with a second-degree crime.

“It’s like I’m living in a dream,” said Josey-Davis, 24. “My whole life was about doing the right thing. Now I’m a convicted felon. A simple mistake can just ruin your life.”

Fearing as much as 10 years in state prison, Josey-Davis took a deal for a year of probation from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office last month. He pleaded guilty to second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and in turn the prosecutor waived the provisions of the Graves Act, the state’s strict gun possession law. He is serving a year of probation as part of that plea deal.

Now he’s making a direct appeal to Gov. Chris Christie for a pardon in paperwork filed last week. The pardon is the only way to wipe his record clean and get his life back on track, experts said.

It’s the second time this year that Christie has intervened to provide justice in gun-rights cases. In April, Christie pardoned Shaneen Allen, who had misunderstood the reciprocity (or lack thereof) of her Pennsylvania carry permit and ended up facing felony charges in New Jersey. That case, involving an African-American single mom, became more of a cause célèbre among Second Amendment advocates. Five years ago, Christie commuted the sentence of a Colorado resident who similarly ran afoul of the differences between state laws, after Brian Aitken had served four months in prison for weapons charges.

Josey-Davis may thank Christie for his clemency, but he probably won’t have much to say about the NAACP, at least nothing complimentary. As the Inquisitr reported last week, the young man told Fox News that he tried to get them to assist him in his efforts to win a pardon, only to be roundly ignored:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSaUoFdl_-w

“I went to the NAACP and they refused to help me… they say black lives matter, but obviously they really don’t because I didn’t fit their agenda. And it’s not fair because my life matters too … Being convicted of a felony is not right and they should be able to help me…Basically I’m not getting shot by a police officer, so they’re not going to come out and defend me. I’m out here doing better for myself and trying to provide for my family. My life matters too. I’m not a criminal whatsoever, and they should be helping me just like they help other black young men out there.”

Does the NAACP routinely involve themselves in cases like this, though? The problem with Josey-Davis’ prosecution wasn’t that it was provoked by his race, but by gun-control legislation that offers no flexibility for simple mistakes. The officers at the scene didn’t throw the book at him; in fact, they only gave him a ticket for the expired registration that prompted the traffic stop in the first place. He didn’t get arrested until after he returned to retrieve the weapon, after police had a couple of days to see that the law didn’t give them any flexibility on the violation.

This looks more like a case for the ACLU. Did he try to get them involved at all? I’m not sure they’d be inclined to defend Second Amendment rights, but it would have been interesting to find out. I think Josey-Davis would have discovered that he “didn’t fit their agenda” too.

Now that he has the pardon, Josey-Davis hopes to resume his ambition to serve in law enforcement, and hopefully North Brunswick still considers him a prospect:

North Brunswick police confirmed that he had been on their candidate’s list, until he withdrew due to the pending criminal charge. Josey-Davis said he hopes, through the governor, to wipe his record clean again.

Josey-Davis’ experiences in the justice system may give him an extraordinary background for police work in the community. Let’s hope he gets the chance, and let’s hope that the New Jersey legislature amends its laws to keep cases like these in the future from requiring executive clemency at all.