In a historic move, President Barack Obama commuted 214 federal sentences on Wednesday, marking the most commutations directed in a single day by a USA president in the last hundred years, BuzzFeed News reports. Six of are from SC and two are from the Lakelands.
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Most were guilty of non-violent crimes, many involving possession or distribution of crack cocaine.
The sentences of most of those affected by the president’s order will now end on 1 December, officials say. The move marks the most commutations issued in a single day in more than a century, and comes just a few months before the 2016 presidential election.
Among the 214 people who saw their requests for clemency granted, 67 of them were serving life sentences. The sentence eventually was reduced to 240 months behind bars on October 6, 2015.
“The work we’re doing with commutations is unprecedented and I have now commuted more sentences for nonviolent drug offenses than the last seven or eight president’s combined”, Obama said.
Obama on Tuesday described his feelings about Trump as unprecedented, recalling disagreements with previous GOP presidential nominees Senator John McCain and Mitt Romney – but never an outright sense they were unfit to serve.
Mr Trump quickly hit back at the President and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton – whom he often says is running for Mr Obama’s third term – as embracing policies that have destabilised the Middle East, hurt veterans and shipped American jobs overseas.
President Barack Obama has long held a stance that many nonviolent drug offenders have been subjected to oversentencing and erroneous, unfair mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
The White House said in a statement that the president will continue commuting the sentences of inmates through his remaining months in office.
-Sheldon Paul Mangiapane of Hot Springs, sentenced to 20 years and 10 years of supervised release for possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. 197 of the total so far have been granted to prisoners serving life sentences.
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Over the course of his presidency, President Obama has highly politicized his habit of aggressively commuting federal prison sentences. “We expect that many more men and women will be given a second chance through the clemency initiative”.
