Stacey Abrams’ sister——Leslie Abrams Gardner is a federal judge——appointed by Barack Obama and was on Joe Biden’s shortlist of nominees for the Supreme Court.
Jimmie Gardner has been arrested in Florida on charges of human trafficking, battery and lewd or lascivious touching of a minor, according to the Office of the State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit.
Gardner, who was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1984, was wrongly convicted in the 1987 sexual assault of two women in West Virginia. He was exonerated in 2016 and released from prison 27 years after his wrongful conviction.
Two years later, he married Stacy Abram’s sister, Georgia Federal Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner.
Gardner currently lives in Georgia and works as a motivational speaker and emotional intelligence trainer for students and people who were formerly incarcerated.
Gardner, who grew up Baptist, found Islam while in prison. In 1994, he took the shahada and declared his faith in Islam.
“That’s what helped me — the transition from unconsciousness to consciousness,” he said. “I credit my faith in Allah. I asked Allah back in 1995 to please bless me with the opportunity to be capable of being a voice for the voiceless, to give me the microphone. I wanted to speak, because I couldn’t get heard.”