The president has worked to reform the US criminal justice system to reduce the number of people serving long, and in many cases life, sentences for drug-related crimes. Six of are from SC and two are from the Lakelands. The sentence was shortened to expire on December 1. In November of 2002, he was sentenced to 235 months (less than 20 years) in prison plus 4 years of supervised release. Most will be released on December 1, 2016. And in most cases, they’re serving sentences that are much harsher than they would be under today’s drug laws.
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Among the 214 federal inmates who had their sentences commuted by President Obama on Wednesday were several in and around our area, including Augusta County. Nearly 200 were serving life sentences. Discussing the historic number of commuted sentences, Eggleston wrote, “our work is far from finished”.
All told, Obama has commuted 562 sentences during his presidency – more than the past nine presidents combined, the White House said. This is the largest amount issued in a single day since at least 1900 from a president. He was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison on February 16, 1996 for violating supervised release in the Middle District of Louisiana.
– Darnell Crookshank of West Covina, who was sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for drug conspiracy and manufacturing.
“Too many men and women end up in a criminal justice system that serves up excessive punishments, especially for nonviolent drug offenses, but this is a country that believes in second chances”, the president wrote in a Facebook post. All had been incarcerated on drug-related charges mostly involving cocaine, methamphetamine or other controlled substances, and convictions involving conspiracy to manufacture the drugs or distribute them.
Cynthia W. Roseberry, project manager for Clemency Project 2014, said Obama granted more commutations Wednesday alone than any president has granted during their entire time in office since the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
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Obama has actively worked to change the nations’ approach to clemency and to eliminate outdated and unnecessarily severe laws that are still on the books.
