Sharpton’s 10-Day Jail Term in New Jersey Is Cut to 2 Hours
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MAYS LANDING, N.J. — The Rev. Al Sharpton entered a New Jersey jail Wednesday intending to serve a 10-day term on charges stemming from a July protest but was back on the street within two hours, authorities said.
Sharpton was released when the judge agreed to commute the sentence to time served and a $500 fine after a hearing with local members of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
Before the sentence was changed, the New York civil rights activist, who has championed opposition to racial profiling in New Jersey, quoted Martin Luther King Jr. to more than 500 supporters and walked arm-in-arm with a King son to the jailhouse door.
“I was booked and on my way to the cell when they came and pulled me out,” said Sharpton.
Sharpton, 45, was sentenced to jail for a summer protest against racial profiling in which he and 75 others blocked an entrance to the Atlantic City Expressway.
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