Donald Trump has dismissed Barack Obama’s time in the White House as a “disaster” after the USA president said he was not fit to succeed him.
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Obama’s so-called Clemency Project has granted a total of 562 commutations – more than all other presidents combined.
“All of the individuals receiving commutation today, incarcerated under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws, embody the president’s belief that “America is a nation of second chances”, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston wrote in a blog post”.
Sixty-seven of those pardoned on Wednesday were serving life sentences.
According to the administration, in some cases release will be on condition of treatment for drug addiction or counseling.
The White House announced Wednesday that President Obama is going to make history.
Eggleston told the public that President Obama’s commutations start with a written application process, and that the president carefully considers each applicant’s merits and personal needs before making a decision regarding clemency. Evans was originally sentenced to life in prison for his role in a small drug distribution ring.
A spokeswoman for Donald Trump blames Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the 2004 killing of American-Muslim Capt. Humayun Khan in Iraq – even though the death occurred more than four years before Obama became president. “It is critical that both the House and the Senate continue to work on a bipartisan basis to get a criminal justice reform bill to the President’s desk”, he said. A 10-year term of supervised release for Tolliver was also reduced to five years. That sentence was amended in May 2014 to 234 months in prison.
Keith Ray’s sentence wasn’t set to expire until around 2025.
A majority of those receiving commutations will be released December 1, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The men were on a list of 214 people who had their sentences commuted for similar offenses.
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Millard was sentenced to life in October 1996 for methamphetamine distribution and Sandmeyer began serving 20 years in 2003 for methamphetamine distribution and possession of a firearm by a felon.
