The president lessened his sentence to 20 years. His sentence will now expire in December.
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Theodore Johnson, age unavailable, pleaded guilty in 2000 to federal charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base. Numerous prisoners will be released by December 28, not long before the president is set to leave office.
The White House said Tuesday that more than one-third of Obama’s clemency recipients had been serving life sentences. Most of those who will be released early as a result of the commutations are nonviolent drug offenders who would have received lesser sentences under today’s sentencing laws.
One of those granted relief was Tim Tyler, who at 25 was sentenced to life in federal prison for selling LSD while traveling the country following the Grateful Dead. “It is disproportionately young men of color that are being arrested at higher rates, charged and convicted at higher rates, and imprisoned for longer sentences”. But while boasting of the effort and working through a sizeable backlog of cases, Obama has quietly denied many more requests for shorter sentences, turning down 2,227 cases on August 8, USA Today reported.
Eggleston says the president isn’t looking to try and achieve a certain number of cases, more so give second chances to the right cases.
Earlier this month, Obama granted commutation to 214 federal inmates.
Today’s 111 commutation grants underscore the President’s commitment to using his clemency authority to provide a second chance to deserving individuals. His sentence was amended a year ago to 262 months.
Eggleston says he expects Obama to continue granting commutations through the end of his administration.
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Sentencing reform for drug offenders has become a major national issue amid rising concern about the expansion of the USA prison system, which now incarcerates more people per capita than any another nation in the world, and shifting public attitudes towards drugs. However, legislation aimed at ending unduly harsh sentencing for drug offenses remain stalled on Capitol Hill.
