Five South Floridians serving federal prison sentences on drug convictions are among the 111 prisoners whose sentences were cut short Tuesday by President Barack Obama.
Advertisement
More than one-third of the 673 convicts had been serving life sentences. Because it just doesn’t make sense to require a nonviolent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison.
Three other Californians, Barry Renfold Cooley of Los Angeles, Richard Van Winrow of Los Angeles and Orfil Javier Garza of Pacoima also received commuted sentences from the president.
The 325 commutations Obama granted in August are more than any president granted in a single year for almost a century, the White House said.
– Eugene Kenneth Brinson of Newark, sentenced September 8, 2006, to life imprisonment and 10 years supervised release for possessing and planning to distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana. White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said he expected Obama to continue to grant commutations until the end of his presidency.
Brian Allen Altman, of New Berlin, was sentenced in 2005 in Virginia to 40 years (he was also convicted of having a gun during the crime).
As part of more than 100 federal prison commutations signed by the president earlier this week, however, Cox’s prison sentence is set to expire on August 30, 2018 on the condition that he enrolls in a residential drug treatment program. It comes weeks after he handed out 214 commutations in what the administration said was the largest amount in a single day since at least 1900. The White House said that is more than any other president has granted in an entire year for almost a century. “We applaud the president for using the clemency power to free people who fully expected to die in prison and for shining a light on the excesses of federal drug sentencing”.
Advertisement
The commutations highlight the need for criminal justice reform legislation, including reforms that address excessive mandatory minimum sentences, he wrote.
