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Attorney General Eric Holder who is famous for stating on C-Span in 1995 What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially yo...
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Eric Holder wants to explore smart bracelets for law abiding gun owners - Video
Anti-Semitic Kansas KKK Killings: Memorial held for Jewish centre shooting victims
US Attorney General Eric Holder has spoken at a memorial service for the three people shot and killed at Jewish centres in Kansas. Holder called said murders...
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Anti-Semitic Kansas KKK Killings: Memorial held for Jewish centre shooting victims - Video
Attorney General Eric Holder Cautiously Optimistic about Marijuana
Attorney General Eric Holder Cautiously Optimistic about Marijuana, DEA Head Leonhart Toughens Stance on Marijuana.
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Attorney General Eric Holder Cautiously Optimistic about Marijuana - Video
Harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenders could be shortened or set aside, to reduce the federal prison population and 'ensure that those who have paid their debts have a chance to become productive citizens,' said Eric Holder on Monday.
The Justice Department is broadening the criteria it will use in evaluating clemency petitions from certain federal prisoners and expects the changes to result in thousands of new applications, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday.
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The new criteria, which will be detailed later this week and are aimed at inmates serving time for nonviolent drug offenses, are intended to lead to a reduction in the nation's federal prison population and also to "ensure that those who have paid their debts have a chance to become productive citizens," Holder said in a video message.
The announcement is part of an ongoing Obama administration push to re-evaluate sentences for drug crimes that officials believe were unduly harsh and were imposed under old federal guidelines that treated convictions for crack cocaine offenses more punitively than those involving the powder form of the drug.
In December, for instance, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of eight drug prisoners including six who were serving life sentences sentenced under old federal guidelines and the Justice Department in January publicly encouraged defense lawyers from around the country to help low-level, nonviolent drug offenders prepare petitions for clemency.
The Justice Department evaluates and recommends clemency applications for the president's review, taking into account factors such as the seriousness of the crime, the person's acceptance of responsibility and behavior since the conviction and input from the prosecuting office that handled the case.
Historically, the overwhelming majority of requests for pardons and sentence commutations are not granted. The trend has continued in the Obama administration Obama commuted only one sentence in his first term causing groups that advocate for prisoners to criticize the president as being too stingy with his power.
But with the use of new criteria in deciding when to recommend a clemency petition to the president, the Justice Department expects to tap into a broader pool of convicts who may be good candidates to have their sentences cut short. Holder said the department was prepared to receive thousands of additional applications for clemency and may assign dozens of lawyers to review those applications.
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Holder: Nonviolent drug sentences to see new 'fairness and proportionality'
Atty. Gen. Eric Holder addresses the Police Executive Research Forum's National Summit on Illegal Drugs in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / April 16, 2014)
11:29 a.m. CDT, April 21, 2014
The department expects thousands of drug offenders currently serving time to be eligible for reduced sentences under the new clemency guidelines and it will prepare to review an influx of applications, Holder said in a video address.
Under U.S. law, the president can reduce sentences or pardon Americans serving sentences for federal crimes. The Justice Department will now recommend more candidates for the president's consideration.
Details of the new criteria will be announced later this week by Deputy Attorney General James Cole.
Holder hinted the guidelines may include applying a 2010 law that reduced sentences for crack cocaine offenders to those sentenced before the law was enacted.
"There are still too many people in federal prison who were sentenced under the old regime - and who, as a result, will have to spend far more time in prison than they would if sentenced today for exactly the same crime," Holder said in his address.
Granting clemency to nonviolent drug offenders is part of the Obama administration's strategy to reduce spending on federal prisons by reducing the number of inmates serving time for nonviolent drug crimes.
Last year, Holder launched the "Smart on Crime" initiative to review the criminal justice system and look for ways to make spending on prisons more efficient by focusing on violent offenders.
Some Republicans in Congress say more lenient sentences would reverse the drop in crime the United States has seen over recent decades.
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U.S. to widen criteria for pardoning drug offenders