Ottawa achieved a dubious distinction over the weekend when the capital saw its 50th shooting of 2016. With a quarter of the year left to go, that beats the previous record of 49 set in 2014. Now, I am not prepared to invite outrage and opprobrium from the left by suggesting that we might encapsulate the increased violence with the sobriquet of "welcome to Justin Trudeau's Canada." But it does suggest that while Canada enforces some of the toughest gun control legislation in the world, the criminals never have any difficulty in obtaining weapons. [continues 580 words]
There goes another Harper tough-on-crime law out the judicial window. Because, of course, we wouldn't want to be too hard on a woman farming 1,100 pot plants in the middle of a Jane St. highrise apartment building. In a landmark ruling, an Ontario judge has struck down yet another of the former Conservative government's mandatory minimum sentences as unconstitutional, this time the two-year minimum jail term - with an extra year for endangering public safety - for growing more than 500 marijuana plants. [continues 626 words]
On Tuesday, President Obama commuted the sentences of 111 federal drug offenders. In his first term, Obama endured the sting of critics like me who called him one of the stingiest modern presidents when it comes to the presidential pardon power. In his second term, Obama is making up for lost time. With 673 commutations , the Washington Post reports , Obama has approached 690, the number of commutations issued by the previous 11 presidents. Obama deserves credit for doing the right thing. [continues 480 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama cut short on Tuesday the sentences of 111 federal inmates in another round of commutations for those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. Obama has long called for phasing out strict sentences for drug convictions, arguing they lead to excessive punishment and incarceration rates unseen in other developed countries. White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said the commutations underscored the president's commitment to using his clemency authority to give deserving individuals a second chance. He said that Obama has granted a total of 673 commutations, more than the previous 10 presidents combined. More than a third of the recipients were serving life sentences. [continues 374 words]
Washington - As a college student in Virginia, Corey Jacobs started selling drugs with the help of a group of friends to make some extra money. A Bronx native, Mr. Jacobs was no kingpin, and no aspect of their drug conspiracy involved violence. Now age 46, Mr. Jacobs has served 16 years of a sentence of life without parole in the federal system. No question, Corey Jacobs should have gone to prison for his felony. But does he deserve to die there? [continues 1176 words]
I am deeply concerned about both Joan Vennochi's column ("Like Bill Clinton, I didn't inhale," July 12) and the political coalition that opposes the marijuana legalization initiative ("Mass. leaders join against marijuana legislation"). While decriminalization in Massachusetts has been a worthwhile and successful step in reducing the number of arrests for marijuana possession, it has not gone far enough. I have worked with the Committee for Public Counsel Services for many years, and found that police officers routinely charge people not only with possession, but with intent to distribute marijuana, which almost automatically adds in the school zone provision. Virtually everywhere in any urban area is within 1,000 feet of what is defined as a school zone. This brings felony conviction, mandatory minimum sentences, and the potential for total unemployability in the future, not to mention the harm that comes from prison time. It does so with no evidence that it accomplishes any positive purpose in the vast majority of those incarcerated, nor for society. [continues 123 words]
BURKEVILLE, Va. - Lenny Singleton is the first to admit that he deserved an extended stay behind bars. To fuel his crack habit back in 1995, he walked into 13 stores over eight days and either distracted a clerk or pretended to have a concealed gun before stealing from the cash register. One time, he was armed with a knife with a six-inch blade that he had brought from his kitchen. Mr. Singleton, 28 at the time, was charged with robbery and accepted a plea deal, fully expecting to receive a long jail sentence. But a confluence of factors worked against him, including the particularly hard-nosed judge who sentenced him and the zero-tolerance ethos of the time against users of crack cocaine. His sentence was very long: two life sentences. And another 100 years. And no possibility for parole. [continues 1146 words]
Case Sparked Debate Because of Mandatory 55-Year Sentence. Salt Lake City (AP) - A Utah music producer who was ordered to 55 years behind bars for bringing guns to marijuana deals has been set free, after 12 years in prison and national outcry over the mandatory minimum sentencing laws that forced a federal judge to impose the lengthy term. Weldon Angelos, 36, was freed Tuesday. He says he kept his release quiet for a few days because he wanted to spend time with his three teenage children, who were much younger when he was sentenced in 2004 at 24. [continues 283 words]
Lawmakers Mostly Agree That Congress Needs to Take Steps. The official confirmation of Prince's death by opioid overdose is likely to reverberate in Washington, where lawmakers are still trying to hammer out a deal on legislation attempting to stem a national crisis in abuse of those drugs. "No one is immune," Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in a statement. Portman is one of the main authors of the Senate legislation. "The heroin and prescription drug epidemic is devastating families and communities all over the country, and we need to get this bill to the president's desk as quickly as possible," he said. [continues 520 words]
President Obama granted clemency to 42 inmates Friday as part of an ongoing effort to release federal prisoners who are serving prison terms resulting from sentencing laws that the White House said were "outdated and unduly harsh." To date, Obama has commuted the sentences of 348 federal inmates. The White House said in a statement that the president will continue commuting the sentences of inmates through his seven remaining months in office. Half of the inmates on Friday's list had been sentenced to life for nonviolent drug offenses, according to the White House. [continues 475 words]
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama shortened the sentences Friday of 42 people serving time for drug-related offenses, continuing a push for clemency that has ramped up in the final year of his administration. Roughly half of the 42 receiving commutations Friday were serving life sentences. Most are nonviolent offenders, although a few were also charged with firearms violations. The White House said many of them would have already finished their sentences if they had been sentenced under current, less onerous sentencing guidelines. [continues 476 words]
With changes to marijuana laws on the horizon, a former star athlete's lawyers argue that sending him to jail for marijuana trafficking would shock the community and violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Seamus John Neary, 25, was in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench Tuesday for sentencing arguments after he was found guilty of trafficking 9.5 kilograms of marijuana. The crime does not carry a mandatory minimum, but federal law changes in 2012 removed the option of a conditional sentence order, or jail sentence served in the community, for trafficking more than three kilograms of pot. [continues 439 words]
With changes to marijuana laws on the horizon, a former star athlete's lawyers argue that sending him to jail for marijuana trafficking would shock the community and violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Seamus John Neary, 25, was in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench Tuesday for sentencing arguments after he was found guilty of trafficking 9.5 kilograms of marijuana. The crime does not carry a mandatory minimum, but federal law changes in 2012 removed the option of a conditional sentence order, or jail sentence served in the community, for trafficking more than three kilograms of pot. [continues 440 words]
More than 10,000 clemency applicants wake up every day in a federal prison, awaiting an answer from President Obama on whether their lengthy prison sentence will come to an end. Most of them will be crushed when they are eventually denied. There are a few, however, who will realize the unlikely and overwhelming joy of finally being released. I was one of those rare few whose name was on the list of Obama's recent clemency grants. And while I was excited to finally be going home - and extremely grateful to the president - I was also perplexed by those who weren't on the list. [continues 271 words]
Congress and President Obama are under pressure to reschedule marijuana. While rescheduling makes sense, it doesn't solve the state/federal conflict over marijuana (descheduling would be better). But more important, it wouldn't fix the broken scheduling system. Ideally, marijuana reform should be part of a broader bill rewriting the Controlled Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act created a five-category scheduling system for most legal and illegal drugs (although alcohol and tobacco were notably omitted). Depending on what category a drug is in, the drug is either subject to varying degrees of regulation and control (Schedules II through V) - or prohibited, otherwise unregulated and left to criminals to manufacture and distribute (Schedule I). The scheduling of various drugs was decided largely by Congress and absent a scientific process - with some strange results. [continues 601 words]
The tomato seedlings in the urban garden were sprouting. The basketball court was filled with men in blue, gray, and brown uniforms shooting hoops and doing pushups. Inside, at vocational classes, men learned the art of tailoring a suit while a group of women studied toward their GEDs. In many ways, the South Bay House of Correction has become a microcosm of the country's evolving attitudes toward drug abuse and drug-related crimes. The facility just off Interstate 93 in Boston is a different place compared with the early 1990s, when leaders in Washington passed a stringent crime bill that authorized stiff penalties for drug crimes and nearly doubled the country's prison population. [continues 1055 words]
WASHINGTON - President Obama commuted the sentences of 58 nonviolent drug offenders on Thursday, the latest in a series of efforts to address what he has called the overly long and harsh sentences of an earlier era. Most of the prisoners whose sentences will be cut short were serving decades behind bars for drug possession and distribution, the result of a crackdown on drug-related crimes in the 1980s and '90s that affected many African-Americans and other minorities. The president has commuted the sentences of 306 individuals - more than his six most recent predecessors combined. But Mr. Obama said that his efforts alone were not enough. He urged members of Congress to keep working toward legislation that would change federal sentencing laws, particularly mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. [continues 187 words]
Congress and President Obama are under pressure to reschedule marijuana. While rescheduling makes sense, it doesn't solve the state/federal conflict over marijuana (de-scheduling would be better). But more important, it wouldn't fix the broken scheduling system. Ideally, marijuana reform should be part of a broader bill rewriting the Controlled Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act created a five-category scheduling system for most legal and illegal drugs (although alcohol and tobacco were notably omitted). Depending on what category a drug is in, the drug is either subject to varying degrees of regulation and control (Schedules II through V) -- or completely prohibited, otherwise unregulated and left to criminals to manufacture and distribute (Schedule I). The scheduling of various drugs was decided largely by Congress and absent a scientific process -- with some strange results. [continues 607 words]
It's not easy being green, man. However, thanks to a cheekily-timed announcement by Health Minister Jane Philpott on April 20, the international cannabis-infused counterculture holiday and coincidentally Hitler's birthday, it may be getting a bit easier. Legislation to legalize weed is coming in 2017 Philpott promised at the UN headquarters in New York as part of a three-day special session tackling the world's drug problems. And boy does the world have drug problems. In a review of published studies Australian researchers determined that 200 million people, roughly one in 20, use illicit drugs including marijuana, amphetamines, cocaine and opioids. [continues 629 words]
History will remember April 2015 as a time of rebirth for Baltimore and for our nation It has been nearly one year since I spoke at Freddie Gray's funeral - and since our city found itself in the throes of unrest. During the past year, I have had the opportunity to work with many people who are dedicated to securing a better future for our city and our nation. Yet, at this one-year mark, we are still seeking the answers to the question that I asked when facing the cameras in the pews at New Shiloh Baptist Church. Freddie Gray, who died from injuries sustained in the back of a Baltimore police van, is shown here in an undated family picture. We all know his name in death, but did we truly see him when he was alive? [continues 767 words]
