8 Drug Offenders Sentenced for Crack Cocaine Commuted by
Obama
President Barack Obama commuted the prison terms of eight drug offenders, citing the Fair Sentencing Act he
signed in 2011. The act narrowed the penalties for the amount of crack and powder
cocaine needed to trigger U.S. federal criminal penalties. The act addressed
only new cases, not ones prior to the act being signed.
“If they had been sentenced under the current law, many of
them would have already served their time and paid their debt to society,” said
President Obama in a written statement Thursday afternoon.
Notably, the president commuted the life sentence of
Clarence Aaron of Mobile, AL, whose prison term is set to finish in April 2014.
Propublica and the Washington Post spotlighted Aaron’s case in May 2012.
This is arguably President’s Obama most significant use
of his presidential power to free inmates. In five years of presidency, he has commuted
just one drug sentence and pardoned 39 people.
In August, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a key
change in federal sentencing policies that target long mandatory terms.
According to Holder, the long mandatory terms have flooded the nation’s prisons
with low-level drug offenders and diverted crime-fighting dollars that could be
better spent.
About 8,800 federal inmates are serving time for crack
offenses committed before the Fair Sentencing Act was ratified, and Congress
reduced mandatory minimum sentences.
The other inmates who were also commuted include Reynolds
Wintersmith, who was 17 in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison for dealing
crack cocaine, as well as Stephanie George, who received a life sentence in 1997
for hiding her boyfriend’s crack in a box in her home.
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A new bill being proposed would allow inmates to apply to a judge for a review of
whether a reduced sentence would be appropriate. The bill is co-sponsored by
Illinois Democrat Senator Richard J. Durbin and Mike Lee, Republican of Utah.
Along with the 8 commuters, President Obama also pardoned 13 people who had
mostly minor offenses and finished their sentences some time ago.
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