Brittany K Barnett: A True Superhero’s Journey to a Life Devoted to Fighting Injustice
If you were a kid during the 80s and early 90s, you probably sat down in front of the TV on Thursday nights to watch “The Cosby Show.” There was so much to love about that show, and we all wanted to be part of the Huxtable clan, living in that fabulous Brooklyn, N.Y. brownstone.
While a lot of young girls may have watched the show and dreamed of being Denise Huxtable (played by Lisa Bonet), the beautiful teenage daughter that was always bringing home cute boyfriends and setting trends with her eclectic style, one young girl living in rural east Texas wanted to be just like Clair Huxtable. The matriarch of the show was not only a tough-talking no-nonsense mother, she was also a successful lawyer, and from a very young age, Brittany K Barnett knew that’s what she wanted to be, too.
But what Brittany saw on TV did not reflect life in her rural community. The young girl was growing up in an environment very close to drug culture. There were no lawyers in her rural community and certainly no black female lawyers. By high school, Brittany had completely given up on her dream.
She decided to, instead, attend the University of Texas at Arlington to earn her bachelor’s and eventually master’s degree in accounting. After graduation, Brittany worked for the esteemed accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers as a CPA. She eventually went to Winstead PC in the Finances & Banking Practice Group.
While Brittany was experiencing great success as a certified accountant, in her heart, it wasn’t the work she felt she should be doing. But she told herself often that accountants help people, too, just in different ways than lawyers. The young woman would have to resign herself to a career crunching numbers instead of cross-examining witnesses.
At least, that’s what she thought. But fate had other plans.
1374671
This simple seven-digit number changed Brittany’s life, and the lives of many other people, forever. This number was assigned to Brittany’s mother by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice when she began serving an 8-year prison sentence after she failed a series of drug tests while on probation. It was during her mother’s incarceration that Brittany discovered that people in the prison system are, more often than not, treated as less than human. In the eyes of the system, prisoners were not worthy of any real compassion or concern. This event sparked a heightened sense of sympathy and compassion in the young woman, who decided it was very much time to revisit her dream of becoming a lawyer.
With a renewed sense of purpose, Brittany got to work and soon received her Juris Doctor degree from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. While in law school, she completed internships with the Honorable Nancy F. Atlas in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas and with the Honorable Reneé H. Toliver in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
While researching a paper for her Critical Race Theory class, one that focused on how race impacted sentencing, Brittany came across he case of Sharanda Jones. Sharanda was a young, single mother and business owner who had been sentenced to life without parole for a first-time, non-violent drug offense. After turning in her paper, Brittany couldn’t stop thinking about Sharanda’s case. Something must have been missing. There HAD to be more to the story that would explain why a young mother with no priors was essentially sentenced to die in prison for a non-violent drug offense.
But all of Brittany’s digging and research pointed to a heart-breaking story: Sharanda was simply a middle woman between a cocaine buyer and supplier. She had never been arrested before and had never even been served a traffic ticket. In fact, Sharanda had never been caught with any drugs and she had been acquitted by a jury. But Brittany would learn, when it comes to sentencing, truth rarely matters. Sharanda had been sentenced to life in prison based on flimsy testimony from two co-conspirators, including the drug supplier, who wound up getting far lesser sentences in exchange for their testimony against her.
The fact that the American Justice System could be corrupt and broken never occurred to Brittany. It was never something Clair Huxtable mentioned on Brittany’s favorite sitcom. And the reality of the injustices people were facing certainly didn’t warrant any laughs.
Plagued by a sense of duty, the young law student wrote to Shiranda, offering legal assistance. The two women immediately connected and began writing to each other daily.
What really touched Brittany about this case was that Shiranda was a mother to an only child, Clenesham, who was just 8-years old when her mother was sent to prison. It was not only the mother who was serving a life sentence, but also the daughter. Brittany knew all-too-well the pain of having a mother in prison; of not being able to see her every day… not getting a hug from her when life was scary and not being able to spend holidays and birthday with the most important person in your world.
As Brittany studied Sharanda’s case more closely, a system came into focus: one where widespread racial injustice forms the core of America’s addiction to incarceration. Moved by Sharanda’s plight, Brittany set to work to gain her freedom.
Brittany was struck by how positive Sharanda seemed to be, living her days inside four cement walls. “How could a person seem so happy knowing they would come out of prison in a casket?” Brittany would wonder to herself after a visit with Sharanda. The answer hit her one day on her drive home: If you want to live without darkness, you must seek the light. When life seems unbearable, you must cling to hope. The power of hope is real, and often, hope alone is enough to make all the difference.
Giving Hope to Others: A Criminal Justice Warrior Is Born
While working tirelessly on Shiranda’s case, Brittany came across a similar case of Donal Clark, who was serving a 30-year sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug offense. Here was another instance of the sentencing not fitting the crime – not in the least. She decided to take on Donal’s case as well.
During the day this young woman, who was on a fast-track to partner at a corporate law firm, moved billion-dollar deals. At night, Brittany worked pro-bono to free her clients who found themselves in near-hopeless legal battles. On the weekends, Brittany would meet with her two clients and prepare a detailed Clemency Petition that captured the injustice of their situations.
All of her hard work and dedication paid off when, through a sentencing commutation granted by President Obama, she secured both clients a prisoners’ release. That was her spark. That’s when the Criminal Justice Warrior was born.
Brittany quit her corporate law career, where she was earning the kind of money that would have allowed her to live in luxury, and instead dedicated her life to correcting the injustices that abound in the criminal justice system. Not only did she give up her cushy job and enviable 6-figure salary, Brittany, at one point, drained her savings account to fund her pro-bono work.
In 2016, Brittany cofounded Buried Alive, a criminal justice reform advocacy organization with former clients Sharanda Jones and Corey Jacobs. The organization’s mission is to eliminate life without parole as a sentence for non-violent drug offenses.
In early 2019, Brittany and MiAngel Cody, founder of and lead counsel for The Decarceration Collective law office & consultancy, started the “90 Days to Freedom campaign”, a push to release nonviolent drug offenders from life sentences. Thanks to their work, 17 people were released from prison under the First Step Act.
One of these 17 clients recently made headlines when she was asked to speak at the national GOP convention. Alice Johnson’s story is all-too familiar. She was served a life-without-parole sentence for a first-time non-violent drug offense.
Back in 1996, Alice had just lost her job and the single mother was unable to support her five children. In a panic, she decided to take a relative up on an offer to use her telephone to connect drug suppliers with drug dealers. Alice did not use drugs herself and she was told she would never even have to touch drugs. She’d simply have to make some phone calls. As a desperate mother wondering how she’d keep her utilities on, Alice agreed to the work.
She was eventually arrested and began serving her life sentence in 1996. The hope of ever being released to spend the rest of her life with her family seemed like a distant horizon she’d never reach. That was until her criminal justice angels Brittany K Barnett and MiAngel Cody came along and took on her case.
While Kim Kardashian West made headlines and was praised for helping get these 17 prisoners released from prison (she did lend her money and star power), it was really the tireless dedication and uncountable hours of Brittany and MiAngel that got these prisoners released.
Her Fight Continues
Brittany started out simply wanting to be a lawyer. Instead, she became an advocate for thousands of people suffering within an unjust justice system. She works tirelessly because she believes in fairness and doing the right thing. But above all else, she believes that ALL HUMAN BEINGS, regardless of the choices they’ve made, deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion.
Sadly, Brittany’s work is not done, not by a long shot. For every prisoner that is awarded clemency, 10 or more are denied. The truth is, the American Justice system is broken, and far too many Americans are locked up for far too long. Brittany believes that allowing nonviolent drug offenders to languish in prison under Draconian laws is unethical and inhumane.
Thanks to criminal justice warriors like Brittany K Barnett, the fight for reform continues and hope is brought to countless human beings who are serving sentences that far exceed their crimes.
