Read the Beforeitsnews.com story here. Advertise at Before It's News here.
Profile image
By Freedom Bunker
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views
Now:
Last hour:
Last 24 hours:
Total:

Obama Shortens 102 Sentences, Including 33 Life Terms for Nonviolent Drug Offenses

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.


The crime that sent Ricky Minor to federal prison for life involved a little more than a gram of methamphetamine, plus supplies for making more: pseudoephedrine pills, acetone, matches, and lighter fluid. There was no evidence that he made meth for anyone but himself and his wife, and under Florida law he probably would have received a sentence of two or three years. But a series of nonviolent drug offenses, none of which resulted in prison time, made him a “career offender” under federal law, triggering a mandatory life sentence for attempting to manufacture methamphetamine. “I was sitting in the courtroom when it happened,” Minor’s mother recalled in an interview with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “and it was all I could do to stay seated in my chair. I was so shocked. I just couldn’t believe they could do that to him.” The judge who sentenced Minor acknowledged that a life term “far exceeds whatever punishment would be appropriate” while noting that he had no choice but to impose it.

Minor, who has spent 15 years behind bars, expected to die there. But thanks to President Obama, he will go free early in the next decade. Yesterday Obama commuted Minor’s sentence from life to 262 months. Assuming Minor gets full “good time” credit, he should be released in less than five years. “Thanks to President Obama,” Minor said in an ACLU press release, “I now have the chance to make my family proud of me, earn pride in myself, and be a person in society who is helpful and useful. I have felt my life wasting away inside of this place, and I know I’m capable of more. I haven’t been able to hug my daughter as a free man since she was 7 years old. She’s an adult now, and I am overcome with happiness that I won’t miss any more of her life.”

Minor is one 102 federal prisoners whose sentences Obama shortened yesterday, including 33 serving life sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. The latest batch raises Obama’s commutation total to 774, “more than the previous 11 presidents combined,” as the White House notes. That accomplishment is especially remarkable given Obama’s slow start. He shortened just one sentence in his first term and just 20 more in the first two years of his second term. Of the commutations granted so far, 97 percent were issued in the second half of Obama’s second term, with 76 percent granted since the beginning of this year. “While he will continue to review cases on an individualized basis throughout the remainder of his term,” says White House Counsel Neil Eggleston, “these statistics make clear that the president and his administration have succeeded in efforts to reinvigorate the clemency process.”

Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), which helped publicize Ricky Minor’s case, praised Obama for picking up his commutation pace while noting that the possibility of clemency does not absolve Congress of its responsibility to reform federal sentences, a bipartisan effort that fizzled this year thanks to Republican worries about looking soft on crime close to elections. “The president is doing the right thing,” FAMM Vice President Kevin Ring said yesterday. “A hundred families—fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, and children—tonight will celebrate the news that a loved one will soon rejoin their family. President Obama has the power fix past mistakes, but only Congress can prevent future ones. It’s time for Congress to reform the mandatory sentencing laws that produced—and continue to produce—unjust and counterproductive sentences.”


Source: http://freedombunker.com/2016/10/07/obama-shortens-102-sentences-including-33-life-terms-for-nonviolent-drug-offenses/


Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world.

Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.

"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.

Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!


Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST


Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!

HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.

Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.

MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)

Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser!  Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!

Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.

Smart Meter Cover -  Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).

Report abuse

    Comments

    Your Comments
    Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

    Total 1 comment
    • Rockledge

      Our drug laws are insane and do more damage than the drugs themselves do.
      I personally think they should decriminalize all the shit and let people destroy themselves with the stuff if they want.
      Drug abuse is a medical problem, not a criminal problem. If someones only crime is posessing a drug, and is not compounded with theft, murder, or other crimes, the system should find better things to do than doing even more damage to someone already a mess.

      Consider what would happen if the drugs were suddenly legalized across the board. The market would dry up, because they would become dirt cheap and the dealers and illegal manufacturers would simply have no incentive to operate. The high cost of drugs is not in manufacturing them, it is in the cost of smuggling them and the risk involved.
      Insurance costs would go down, because addicts and abusers would not be nearly as prone to theft and robbery, and much violent crime associated with drugs would disappear.
      Or in the case of the medical industry, corporate greed.

      Legalizing them could also bring medical costs down, because there are plenty of people who figure out how to self medicate.

      The notion of society spending massive amounts of money keeping someone in prison who was not a threat to society and in the process making them unemployable for life is nuts.

      The united states incarcerates more people per capita than any other country. WE the taxpayers pay for it.

    MOST RECENT
    Load more ...

    SignUp

    Login

    Newsletter

    Email this story
    Email this story

    If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

    If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.