Pubdate: Wed, 01 Apr 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Authors: Juliet Eilperin and Sari Horwitz

OBAMA COMMUTES SENTENCES OF 22 DRUG OFFENDERS

Prison Terms Were Set Under Guidelines Now Deemed Too Harsh

President Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentences of 22 drug 
offenders, the largest batch of prisoners to be granted early release 
under his administration as it steps up an overhaul of the nation's 
criminal justice system.

The early release of federal inmates is part of a sweeping effort to 
reduce the enormous costs of overcrowded prisons and address drug 
sentences handed down under old guidelines U.S. officials now view as 
too harsh. Obama had previously commuted the sentences of eight 
prisoners under the new Justice Department-led initiative; tens of 
thousands more are seeking to have their cases reviewed.

The 22 inmates whose sentences were commuted Tuesday were nonviolent 
offenders serving time for the possession, sale and distribution of 
substances including methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine. One, 
Terry Andre Barnes of East Moline, Ill., was convicted of conspiracy 
to distribute cocaine and sentenced in July 2005 to 246 months in 
prison, a term that would have kept him behind bars until 2025.

Obama wrote a letter to each of the inmates - all but one of whom, 
including Barnes, will be released July 28 - urging them to use the 
opportunity to rebuild their lives.

"I am granting your application because you have demonstrated the 
potential to turn your life around. Now it is up to you to make the 
most of this opportunity," Obama wrote. "It will not be easy, and you 
will confront many who doubt people with criminal records can change. 
. . . But remember that you have the capacity to make good choices."

"I believe in your ability to prove the doubters wrong," the 
president concluded, "So good luck, and Godspeed."

White House counsel Neil Eggleston said that under current sentencing 
guidelines, many of the individuals granted clemency would have 
already served their time in prison.

"Because many were convicted under an outdated sentencing regime, 
they served years - in some cases more than a decade - longer than 
individuals convicted today of the same crime," Eggleston said in a 
blog post outlining the reasoning behind the commutations, adding 
that they "underscore the president's commitment to using all the 
tools at his disposal to bring greater fairness and equity to our 
justice system."

Since the Obama administration announced last year that it would 
grant clemency to nonviolent offenders, more than 35,000 inmates - 
about 16 percent of the federal prison population - have applied to 
have their sentences shortened.

The process has been slow to get off the ground. More than 1,500 
volunteer lawyers working with the Clemency Project 2014 - a group 
that includes Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the American Civil 
Liberties Union, the American Bar Association and the National 
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers - have been sifting through 
the applications to help identify candidates for early release and to 
represent them.

Under the Justice Department criteria released last spring, 
candidates for clemency must have served at least 10 years of their 
sentence, have no significant criminal history and no connection to 
gangs, cartels or organized crime. Inmates who apply must be 
prisoners who probably would have received a "substantially lower 
sentence" if convicted of the same offense today.

Some of the inmates whose sentences Obama commuted on Tuesday were 
prisoners whose applications were supported by Clemency Project lawyers.

"I cannot express in stronger terms how gratifying it is to see 
today's grants of clemency by the White House," said Cynthia W. 
Roseberry, project manager for Clemency Project 2014. "I hear every 
day from prisoners and their loved ones who for the first time in 
many years have hope. For far too long, this nation went down the 
road of locking up nonviolent offenders and throwing away the keys, 
without any regard for value of these people and the damage that mass 
incarceration does to families, communities and to our entire society."

While many criminal justice activists have criticized Obama for not 
doing more to pardon low-level offenders, Eggleston noted that, with 
Tuesday's action, the president has now granted 43 commutations.

"To put President Obama's actions in context, President George W. 
Bush commuted 11 sentences in his eight years in office," he wrote, 
adding that Obama remains committed to pursuing broader criminal 
justice reform through bipartisan legislation.

While Republicans and Democrats remain at an impasse on many issues, 
one of the few legislative initiatives that has the potential of 
passing this year is a bill overhauling the nation's sentencing guidelines.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom