The Obama administration has also expanded criteria for inmates applying for clemency, prioritizing nonviolent offenders who have behaved well in prison, aren’t closely tied to gangs and would have received shorter sentences if they had been convicted a few years later.
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Lavon Crockett of Kansas City, Kansas, was sentenced in 2005 to 15 years and four months for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.
Obama commuted King’s term to end December 1 of this year; Grooms’ sentence was reduced to 20 years – effectively mirroring the term served by King – meaning he will be eligible for release in 2025.
The statement from President Obama said, “Prison sentence commuted to expire on August 3, 2018, conditioned upon enrollment in residential drug treatment”.
The president has granted a total of 562 commutations in his presidency, a number that exceeds “the previous nine presidents combined”, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post. For others, it will take much longer: theHuffington Post highlights an individual who was sentenced to life in 2009 for intent to distribute large quantities of marijuana and will now be serving a measly 30-year bid.
Eggleston said that Obama closely examined each prisoner’s request for clemency before settling on a new release date. Each of those prisoners were serving sentences that the President and the Department of Justice decided were too long or too harsh.
As the Obama administration continues to unclog the American prison system of drug-related offenders, we slowly, but steadily make progress against the hard-fought War on Drugs.
“They embody the president’s belief that America is a nation of second chances”.
Sixty-seven of those inmates were serving life sentences.
Before the President commuted his sentence, James was scheduled to remain in the Elkton Federal Correction Institution until 2022.
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“The President should be applauded for today’s action, but as his term runs out he must step up the frequency and number of commutations”, said Michael Collins, deputy director at DPA’s Office of National Affairs. Asked whether he was anxious about Trump having access to such material, Obama said simply that those who want to be president need to start acting like it.
