It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
President Obama on Friday commuted the sentences of 42 inmates, as he accelerates his effort to free prisoners burdened with lengthy sentences in the government’s war on drugs.
Nearly half were granted to people serving life sentences, mostly for convictions related to crack or coc aine possession and distribution.
Most will be released on Oct. 1, but some will be freed next June.
Obama has issued 348 commutations during his time in office, more than the previous seven presidents combined, according to the White House. Among those freed include 130 who were serving life sentences.
But even as he exercises authority more assertively than any of his modern predecessors, Mr. Obama has only begun to tackle the problem he has identified. In the next weeks, the total number of commutations for Mr. Obama’s presidency may surpass 80, but more than 30,000 federal inmates have come forward in response to his administration’s call for clemency applications. A cumbersome review process has advanced only a small fraction of them. And just a small fraction of those have reached the president’s desk for a signature.
“I think they honestly want to address some of the people who have been oversentenced in the last 30 years,” said Julie Stewart, the founder and president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a group advocating changes in sentencing. “I’m not sure they envisioned that it would be as complicated as it is, but it has become more complicated, whether it needs to be or not, and that’s what bogged down the process".
The general idea is to determine if the "offenders" were non-violent when committing the crimes.
originally posted by: neo96
So when is he gonna pardon gun owners ?
Ya know those people in prison just for merely having a weapon. and didn't do anything OTHER than having one in their possession.
Non violent.
WE are way past Brave New World people here.
With Obama and his party actively pushing drugs and letting people go.
I forget the name of that drug used on the masses to make them docile, and more conducive to state totalitarianism.
originally posted by: TorqueyThePig
That said, if they also have a history of other crime (property/person) I don't think they should.
originally posted by: thinline
do you think his list is diverse? making sure every group gets a little off the top...
I would love to see a web site started that follows these people, so we can see how many end up back in jail ,and for what, and how many life free and die happy.
That would be great data to make decisions going forward
We all know the sentences were probably to harsh, but is Obama over doing it a little?
Perhaps, perhaps not.