Pubdate: Fri, 20 Dec 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Debra J. Saunders

PUNISHMENT DIDN'T FIT CRIME - NOW JUSTICE PREVAILS

President Obama commuted the sentences of eight crack cocaine 
offenders Thursday, including that of Clarence Aaron, who was serving 
a sentence of life without parole for a first-time nonviolent drug 
conviction when he was 23.

Aaron's story represents the worst excesses of the federal criminal 
justice system. Aaron, of Mobile, Ala., had no criminal record. He 
had held jobs. In 1992, he was a college student who decided to 
address his money problems by acting as an intermediary between two 
career drug dealers. The dealers paid him $1,500 to set up two large 
cocaine deals. They got caught. The ringleaders knew how to game the 
system. They pleaded guilty and testified against Aaron.

Aaron wasn't as savvy. He pleaded not guilty and lied on the stand - 
which enhanced his sentence. The buyer planned on converting powder 
cocaine to crack - that, too, enhanced Aaron's sentence. One deal 
didn't happen, but federal prosecutors charged Aaron for it anyway. 
Voila, he won the same sentence that was imposed on FBI 
agent-turned-Russian spy Robert Hanssen and now-deceased serial 
killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Aaron knows he broke the law. He had earned prison time. But what 
does it say when federal prosecutors seek and win life without parole 
for a first-time offender while letting the big fish finagle lesser 
sentences? All but one of Aaron's cohorts have been out of prison since 2000.

'Best Christmas ever'

Aaron's cousin, Aaron Martin, said the commutation made this season 
"the best Christmas ever." Attorney Margaret C. Love said, "We are 
grateful to President Obama."

In 2001, I began hectoring President George W. Bush to commute 
Aaron's sentence. Bush asked his pardon attorney to reconsider the 
petition, but the official misled him, failing to inform him that the 
judge and the U.S. attorney had come to support Aaron's petition, so 
the president said no.

When Obama was first elected, Aaron's family was convinced that 
America's first black president would free Aaron, who is African 
American. In the first term, their hopes were dashed. Until Thursday, 
Obama had commuted only one sentence, that of crack-cocaine offender 
Eugenia Jennings, in 2011; Jennings died of leukemia in October. 
Finally, on Thursday, it happened.

"Today, I am commuting the prison terms of eight men and women who 
were sentenced under an unfair system" that was reformed three years 
ago under the Fair Sentencing Act, Obama said in a statement. "Each 
of them has served more than 15 years in prison. In several cases, 
the sentencing judges expressed frustration that the law at the time 
did not allow them to issue punishments that more appropriately fit the crime."

Nonviolent offenses

According to the White House, six of the inmates whose sentences were 
commuted were serving life sentences for nonviolent offenses.

It's about time. Drug-war critics have been waiting for commutations 
ever since Attorney General Eric Holder told the American Bar 
Association in August that "certain low-level nonviolent drug 
offenders who have no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or 
cartels will no longer be charged with offenses that impose draconian 
mandatory minimum sentences."

Political science Professor P.S. Ruckman Jr., who hosts the Pardon 
Power blog, had rated Obama "one of the most merciless (presidents) 
in history."

Nearing Bush's record

On Thursday, Ruckman observed, "I don't think that changes his record 
that much." With nine acts of clemency, however, Obama is approaching 
the 11 commutations granted by Bush.

The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that close to 2,000 
nonviolent offenders are serving life without parole in federal prisons.

"If we were reading about this stuff and it were in another country," 
noted the head of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Julie Stewart, 
"we'd be saying, 'Oh, my god, they're putting away people for life 
for nonviolent offenses.' "

It is amazing how many liberals will support Obama's reticence to use 
his clemency power. "Willie Horton!" they chime - noting that 
Republicans made former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis answer for 
the furlough of a murderer who raped a woman during an armed robbery 
after he was furloughed. Be it noted: Horton was ineligible for 
parole and should not have been given a weekend pass.

Aaron has no record of violence. He has a clean prison record. He has 
taken responsibility for the actions that led to his prosecution. His 
family wants to help him establish a productive life.

During a 2002 phone call from prison, Aaron told me he could not 
believe that in America, a young man could be condemned to spend the 
rest of his life behind bars for a stupid, criminal, but nonviolent, decision.

"These people literally would have died in prison without this act of 
compassion and mercy by the president," Stewart noted. "He will not regret it."

Indeed, I believe Obama will feel so good about these commutations, 
he'll do it again soon.
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