President Obama Commutes Crack Cocaine Sentences of 8 People Serving Life Without Parole (317 hits)
In what many civil rights advocates are calling a bold judicial breakthrough, President Obama on Thursday used his extraordinary executive power to commute the sentences of eight federal inmates — some of whom are black — who were convicted of non-violent crack cocaine offenses – the first time in recent memory that a U.S. president considered cocaine-related cases to offer relief for some inmates who were sentenced to life in prison.
...", I am commuting the prison terms of eight men and women who were sentenced under an unfair system,” President Obama said in a statement. “Each of them has served more than 15 years in prison. In several cases, the sentencing judges expressed frustration that the law at the time did not allow them to issue punishments that more appropriately fit the crime.”...
