Obama Commutes Prison Sentences for 8 Inmates
He has asked Congress to make the new sentencing law retroactive.
By Timothy M. Phelps -December 20, 2013
The commutations are part of the Obama administration’s effort, mainly during the past three years, to address inequities in the criminal justice system, particularly those that put black men behind bars far more often than others.
In August, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that he would direct federal prosecutors not to automatically seek mandatory minimum sentences for low-level, nonviolent drug offenders.
Until 2010, when Congress approved a new sentencing law, those convicted of possessing crack cocaine were subject to mandatory sentences far higher than those given to people possessing the powder form of the drug. Crack use was more common among blacks and powder among whites.
But the 2010 law, the Fair Sentencing Act, still left thousands of convicted crack users and dealers serving sentences that would have been considerably shorter if their cases had involved powder cocaine. Obama has asked Congress to make that law retroactive.
“Commuting the sentences of these eight Americans is an important step toward restoring fundamental ideals of justice and fairness,” Obama said. “But it must not be the last. In the new year, lawmakers should act on the kinds of bipartisan sentencing reform measures already working their way through Congress.”
Thursday’s commutations involved prisoners who already had served at least 15 years in prison. Six had been sentenced to life and several were the focus of considerable publicity about their plight.
Prisoner advocates welcomed the announcement but said that roughly 7,000 imprisoned crack users or dealers would be free if they had been sentenced after the 2010 law.
Among the people receiving commutations Thursday, the most publicized case was that of Clarence Aaron of Mobile, Ala., who was convicted of multiple cocaine charges in 1993 when he was 24 years old. Aaron received three life sentences based on mandatory sentencing guidelines at the time. His conviction was his first criminal offense, and he did not buy, sell or supply the drugs. Instead, he was convicted of conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute it, among other charges.
Clarence Aaron’s case was featured on the PBS Frontline program and re-aired on the Fox television network.
Aaron’s case was featured on the Frontline program on PBS and on the Fox television network. An investigation by the Washington Post and ProPublica last year revealed that when his request for a commutation was submitted to President George W. Bush, key details were left out of the file. A report by the Justice Department’s inspector general affirmed the news organizations’ findings.
Margaret Love, a pardon attorney under President Bill Clinton and a lawyer for Aaron, said she was encouraged by the Obama’s action, but she said a congressional vote to make the 2010 law apply to previously sentenced offenders “ain’t going to happen.”
She called on Obama to look at the problem of the thousands of crack offenders in prison “on a broader basis,” perhaps considering an approach like that of former President Gerald R. Ford, who set up a clemency board to review the cases of alleged Vietnam-era draft evaders.