Rating Obama #39;s engagement with Latinos / Immigration, Equality, Foreign Policy
Rating Obama #39;s engagement with Latinos Irin Carmon and Raul Reyes discuss how many young Cuban Americans favor more direct engagement with Cuba and President Obama #39;s outreach to ...
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Rating Obama's engagement with Latinos / Immigration, Equality, Foreign Policy - Video
Obama Admin Using Gaddafi Arms Against Syrias Assad
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Obama Admin Using Gaddafi Arms Against Syrias Assad - Video
Tennessee sues Obama over illegal immigration
Tennessee is joining a lawsuit challenging President Obama #39;s executive order on illegal immigration. Tennessee is now the 25th state to join the challenge, following Georgia and Alabama....
By: chattanooga
MidPoint | William LeoGrande was in Cuba when President Obama and Castro made their announcements
A professor of government at American University and co-author of the book Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana was in Cuba when President ...
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MidPoint | William LeoGrande was in Cuba when President Obama and Castro made their announcements - Video
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- The Obama administration has consistently supported measures aimed at reforming mandatory minimum prison sentencing for nonviolent drug offenders. But President Barack Obama's recent decision to commute the prison sentences of only eight federal inmates -- incarcerated for drug crimes -- has left advocates wanting more.
The forgiveness of a crime after a sentence is served or the reduction of a sentence currently being served is one of the few presidential powers widely unchecked by Congress or the courts. Commutations are traditionally issued in the weeks leading up to the holidays.
READ: Eric Holder seeks to cut mandatory minimum drug sentences
The eight offenders granted commutations this year (here is the full list from the White House) were all serving lengthy sentences, half of them life sentences, for drug offenses related to crack cocaine and methamphetamine. Although this was the same number of commutations granted in 2013, many expected the number to be much greater given the Justice Department's April announcement of a new prison reform initiative aimed at making it easier for the administration to pardon or reduce sentences of non-violent offenders.
"Well, it's a start, albeit a disappointingly small one," said Julie Stewart of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. "Given the administration's pronouncement that it wants to grant more clemencies, I was surprised they granted the exact same number of commutations as last December."
The initiative launched by the Obama administration and outside advocacy groups earlier this year was touted as a way to "quickly and effectively identify" inmates serving mandatory minimum sentences that have since been characterized as "out-of-date" and inappropriate, according to a statement made by Deputy Attorney General James Cole in May.
Cole said the President's decision to grant clemency to these eight individuals "sustains his commitment to bring fairness to our criminal justice system. While all eight were properly held accountable for their criminal actions, their punishments did not fit their crimes, and sentencing laws and policies have since been updated to ensure more fairness for low-level offenders."
But the Clemency Report, an advocacy group dedicated to making executive clemency work on the federal level, called the number of commutes "disgraceful in an era of mass imprisonment," according to a statement posted to their website.
The advocacy group pointed out that no marijuana, powder cocaine or LSD offenders had their sentences shortened despite the fact that an estimated 2,000 federal inmates qualify for commutation consideration under the administration's new criteria.
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Obama pardons drug offenders