President Obama commuted the sentences of 111 more federal inmates Tuesday, capping a month in which he’s almost doubled the number of commutations granted during his presidency.
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The executive action granted the most commutations by an American president in a single day, according to the White House, and raised Obama’s August commutation total to 325, the highest number in any month in American history. Last year President Obama commuted the prison sentences of 95 people in December (mostly non-violent drug offenders) and 46 non-violent drug offenders in July 2015.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentence of a former Casper resident who was sentenced to almost 22 years imprisonment for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, according to a news release from the White House.
James Dillehay, of Akron, was serving a life sentence for conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.
“The clemency initiative is about more than the 111 people who learned today that their sentences have been commuted; it’s also about the families and communities who will welcome them home as they work to build a new life”, she said.
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.
Prisoners benefitting from these shortened sentences are supposed to no longer present a threat.
His sentence was commuted to expire in 2018.
“Congress must act to enact a fairer federal sentencing system”, the White House added in a tweet Tuesday. The magazine also wrote 35 of this round’s 111 commutations will not take effect for two years, while others released by Obama will remain under court supervision.
President Obama has reduced the drug sentences of six Charlotte-area men, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Eggleston said he expects the president to continue to grant commutations through the end of his presidency. Such legislation has stalled, undercut by a rash of summer shootings involving police and the pressure of election-year politics.
Eggleston said Obama considered the individual merits of each application to determine that an applicant is ready to make use of their second chance.
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There were more than 210,000 federal inmates as of 2014, not including the 1.3 million in state facilities, the Washington Post says.
