Those receiving commuted sentences are all imprisoned for drug-related, non-violent crimes. That meant he would have stayed in prison for more than 17 years.
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Before the President commuted his sentence, James was scheduled to remain in the Elkton Federal Correction Institution until 2022. Commutation Grant: Prison sentence commuted to expire on August 3, 2017.
– Williams Robertson Sr., of New Orleans, was sentenced to twenty years in prison and 10 years of supervised release on November 8, 2001, for convictions of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute in the Northern District of Florida.
-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.
A Louisville man is among 214 federal inmates granted commutation by President Barack Obama on Wednesday, according to a White House release.
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.
Among the 214 people who saw their requests for clemency granted, 67 of them were serving life sentences. With the commuted sentence he is now scheduled to be released on December 1, 2016.
While in office, Obama has granted 562 commutations, which the Department of Justice says is more than the past nine presidents combined.
Still, advocates for more aggressive presidential clemency say even that pace is not enough to fulfill the promise of Obama’s 2014 clemency initiative, which hoped to shorten the sentences of offenders who would have been given shorter sentences if they had been convicted of the same crime today.
Though there’s broad bipartisan support for a criminal justice overhaul, what had looked like a promising legislative opportunity for Obama’s final year has mostly fizzled.
He boasted about the amount of commutations he has issued as president in an interview with National Public Radio in July.
Obama has worked to reform the US criminal justice system and reduce the number of people serving long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. It added that the process isn’t over, and “we expect that many more men and women will be given a second chance”.
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Eggleston said that Obama closely examined each prisoner’s request for clemency before settling on a new release date.
