"Final Acts of Clemency": Bush commutes sentences of former US border agents

[Winehole23]

Bush commutes sentences of former US border agents
(http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_PARDONS?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)


By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer





WASHINGTON (AP) -- In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.


Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh.


Rancor over their convictions, sentencing and firings has simmered ever since the shooting occurred in 2005. The former border guards in El Paso, Texas, are expected to be released from prison within the next two months.
"After four years of fighting this, it's taken a toll on me and my daughter, and really the whole family," said Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in law, who has received tens of





http://hosted.ap.org/photos/C/c5362e1b-253b-461f-8a22-93891bc6d6bf-small.jpg (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/photos/C/c5362e1b-253b-461f-8a22-93891bc6d6bf.html?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)
AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari





thousands of supportive e-mails and spent much of the past two years traveling the country to speak about the case.


He said his daughter, Monica Ramos, called from New York after learning the news that her husband was to be released from a federal prison just outside Phoenix.


"She could hardly speak," Loya said.
Ramos and Compean became a rallying point among conservatives and on talk shows where their supporters called them heroes. Nearly the entire bipartisan congressional delegation from Texas and other lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle pleaded with Bush to grant them clemency.


Bush didn't pardon the men for their crimes, but decided instead to commute their sentences because he believed they were excessive and that they had already suffered the loss of their jobs, freedom and reputations, a senior administration official said.


The action by the president, who believes the border agents received fair trials and that the verdicts were just, does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes, the official said.


Compean and Ramos, were convicted of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks as he fled across the Rio Grande, away from an abandoned van load of marijuana. The border agents argued during their trials that they believed the smuggler was armed and that they shot him in self defense. The prosecutor in the case said there was no evidence linking the smuggler to the van of marijuana. The prosecutor also said the border agents didn't report the shooting and tampered with evidence by picking up several spent shell casings.


The agents were fired after their convictions on several charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon and with serious bodily injury, violation of civil rights and obstruction of justice. All their convictions, except obstruction of justice, were upheld on appeal.


Compean and Ramo were sentenced to 12 years and 11 years in prison, respectively. They each also were fined $2,000 and sentenced to three years of supervised release. Under the terms of Bush's commutation, their prison sentences will expire on March 20, but their three-year terms of supervised release and the fines will remain intact.


With the new acts of clemency, Bush has granted a total of 189 pardons and 11 commutations.


That's fewer than half as many as Presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan issued during their two-term tenures. Bush technically has until noon on Tuesday when President-elect Barack Obama is sworn into office to exercise his executive pardon authority, but presidential advisers said no more were forthcoming.


The president had made most of his pardon decisions on low-profile cases, but his batch in December created controversy.


Isaac Robert Toussie of Brooklyn, N.Y, convicted of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and of mail fraud, was among 19 people Bush pardoned just before Christmas. But after learning in news reports that Toussie's father had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party a few months ago, as well as other information, the president reversed his decision on Toussie's case.
The White House said the decision to revoke the pardon - a step unheard of in recent memory - was based on information about the extent and nature of Toussie's prior criminal offenses, and that neither the White House counsel's office nor the president had been aware of a political contribution by Toussie's father and wanted to avoid creating an appearance of impropriety.


In an earlier high-profile official act of forgiveness, Bush saved Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, from serving prison time in the case of the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstructing justice. Bush could still grant him a full pardon, although Libby has not applied for one.


Clinton issued a total of 457 in eight years in office. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, issued 77 in four years. Reagan issued 406 in eight years, and President Carter issued 563 in four years. Since World War II, the largest number of pardons and commutations - 2,031 - came from President Truman, who served 82 days short of eight years.

[SnakeBoy]

Better late than never I suppose.

[braeden0613]

Good decision...I'm a little surprised

[sook]

nice job W

[DarrinS]

good

[George Gervin's Afro]

Bush commutes sentences of former US border agents
(http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_PARDONS?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)


By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer





WASHINGTON (AP) -- In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.


Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh.


Rancor over their convictions, sentencing and firings has simmered ever since the shooting occurred in 2005. The former border guards in El Paso, Texas, are expected to be released from prison within the next two months.
"After four years of fighting this, it's taken a toll on me and my daughter, and really the whole family," said Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in law, who has received tens of





http://hosted.ap.org/photos/C/c5362e1b-253b-461f-8a22-93891bc6d6bf-small.jpg (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/photos/C/c5362e1b-253b-461f-8a22-93891bc6d6bf.html?SITE=OHLIM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)
AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari





thousands of supportive e-mails and spent much of the past two years traveling the country to speak about the case.


He said his daughter, Monica Ramos, called from New York after learning the news that her husband was to be released from a federal prison just outside Phoenix.


"She could hardly speak," Loya said.
Ramos and Compean became a rallying point among conservatives and on talk shows where their supporters called them heroes. Nearly the entire bipartisan congressional delegation from Texas and other lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle pleaded with Bush to grant them clemency.


Bush didn't pardon the men for their crimes, but decided instead to commute their sentences because he believed they were excessive and that they had already suffered the loss of their jobs, freedom and reputations, a senior administration official said.


The action by the president, who believes the border agents received fair trials and that the verdicts were just, does not diminish the seriousness of their crimes, the official said.


Compean and Ramos, were convicted of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks as he fled across the Rio Grande, away from an abandoned van load of marijuana. The border agents argued during their trials that they believed the smuggler was armed and that they shot him in self defense. The prosecutor in the case said there was no evidence linking the smuggler to the van of marijuana. The prosecutor also said the border agents didn't report the shooting and tampered with evidence by picking up several spent shell casings.


The agents were fired after their convictions on several charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon and with serious bodily injury, violation of civil rights and obstruction of justice. All their convictions, except obstruction of justice, were upheld on appeal.


Compean and Ramo were sentenced to 12 years and 11 years in prison, respectively. They each also were fined $2,000 and sentenced to three years of supervised release. Under the terms of Bush's commutation, their prison sentences will expire on March 20, but their three-year terms of supervised release and the fines will remain intact.


With the new acts of clemency, Bush has granted a total of 189 pardons and 11 commutations.


That's fewer than half as many as Presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan issued during their two-term tenures. Bush technically has until noon on Tuesday when President-elect Barack Obama is sworn into office to exercise his executive pardon authority, but presidential advisers said no more were forthcoming.


The president had made most of his pardon decisions on low-profile cases, but his batch in December created controversy.


Isaac Robert Toussie of Brooklyn, N.Y, convicted of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and of mail fraud, was among 19 people Bush pardoned just before Christmas. But after learning in news reports that Toussie's father had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party a few months ago, as well as other information, the president reversed his decision on Toussie's case.
The White House said the decision to revoke the pardon - a step unheard of in recent memory - was based on information about the extent and nature of Toussie's prior criminal offenses, and that neither the White House counsel's office nor the president had been aware of a political contribution by Toussie's father and wanted to avoid creating an appearance of impropriety.


In an earlier high-profile official act of forgiveness, Bush saved Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, from serving prison time in the case of the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstructing justice. Bush could still grant him a full pardon, although Libby has not applied for one.


Clinton issued a total of 457 in eight years in office. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, issued 77 in four years. Reagan issued 406 in eight years, and President Carter issued 563 in four years. Since World War II, the largest number of pardons and commutations - 2,031 - came from President Truman, who served 82 days short of eight years.

Cool. Now all law enforcement officer can plant fake evidence after they shoot a bad guy in the back while he is running away!. Afterall they are bad guys so peace officers now are judge and jury.! Nice way to end your term Bush

[Winehole23]

Cool. Now all law enforcement officer can plant fake evidence after they shoot a bad guy in the back while he is running away!. Afterall they are bad guys so peace officers now are judge and jury.! Nice way to end your term BusgEasy there, GGA. The sentences were commuted. The verdicts still stand. They're still guilty as hell, they just get out of jail early.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Easy there, GGA. The sentences were commuted. The verdicts still stand. They're still guilty as hell, they just get out of jail early.

To me any peace officer who breaks the law should pay a heavy price.

[FreeMason]

Kept them in jail for two years. Nice job asshole.

[jochhejaam]

Better late than never.

A review of what happened;

In case you have forgotten, here are the facts:

1 - On February 17th, 2006, Border Patrol agents Ignacios Ramos and Jose Compean noticed a suspicious van near the Rio Grande river.

2 - The van was being driven by Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican national illegally crossing our border and smuggling 743 pounds of marijuana into the United States.

3 - When the illegal drug smuggler saw agents Ramos and Compean, he ran for the border. The agents heard gun shots while pursuing Davila on foot.

4 - According to media reports, Davila at one point turned toward the pursuing agents and pointed what appeared to be a gun. The border agents fired their weapons at the fleeing drug smuggler.
(The shooting was in self defense)

5 - Davila was hit in the buttocks, although Compean and Ramos did not know it at the time because Davila didn’t even slow down. He jumped into a waiting van and sped off in the night.

What happened next should enrage all Americans, and as The New American stated:

Incredibly, while agents Ramos and Compean and their families face economic ruin, emotional devastation, and real physical danger, as a result of that 15-minute chase, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila – an admitted felon and drug smuggler – has not only gotten off scot-free, he stands to become a rich man, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers.

In a seemingly unbelievable turn of events, agents for the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security contacted the smuggler in Mexico and offered him complete immunity if he would testify that the Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean had violated his civil rights.
(Let the lunacy begin!)

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and this story is a prime example. Johnny Sutton, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, charged the two law enforcement officers with (1) Causing serious bodily injury; (2) Assault with a deadly weapon; (3) Discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence; (4) violating the civil rights of an illegal immigrant.

At the trial, the prosecutor dismissed Ramos’ testimonly that he saw “something shiny” in Davila’s hand. She, the prosecutor, then stated:

…couldn’t be sure it was a gun he had seen.

In other words, law enforcement officers are to wait until they are shot at, injured, before they are allowed to use their firearms?

Also, the prosecutor said it was a violation of a Border Patrol policy for agents to pursue dope dealers on the run. She explained this statement:

Agents are not allowed to pursue. In order to exceed the speed limit, you have to get supervisor approval, and they did not.

What?!?

Agent Ramos had an excellent record during his ten-year service as a Border Patrol officer and was nominated for the Agent of the Year award, and stated:

How are we supposed to follow the Border Patrol strategy of apprehending terrorists or drug smugglers if we aren’t supposed to pursue fleeing people? Everybody who’s breaking the law flees from us. What are we supposed to do? Do they want us to catch them or not?

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean deserve to be commended, not charged by our government with violating civil rights of a non-citizen and drug smuggler. Our system is bankrupt and it is time to fix it, as well as our nonsensical foreign policy with Mexico.

And, did the jury of 12 decide they were guilty? The answer is no. Three jurors stated after the trial that their choice was not guilty. Robert Gourley, Claudia Torres and Edine Woods say they were told the verdict had to be unanimous, which was false.

The three jurors signed sworn affidavits that they had been incorrectly instructed as jurors. In addition, other jurors intimidated jurors to change their votes. One juror said he thought that 10 years in prison was excessive punishment. Another mentioned the jury foreman:

I felt like he knew something about the judge that we did not know. I did not think that Mr. Ramos or Mr. Compean was guilty of the assaults and civil rights violations.

Defense attorney, Mary Stillinger, after finding out about the statements made by the jurors, asked that the verdict be set aside, but the judge denied the motion.

The plight of these agents is not over. Please click here to send an e-mail the President and tell him to use his power of presidential pardon, per the United States Constitution in Article II, Section 2, to pardon agents Ramos and Compean.

The American people must not tolerate the imprisonment of two patrol agents who did nothing more than their job. This is a wrong that must be made right. In addition to the pardon, we should demand that those agents receive any back pay due and be reinstated in their position as agents for their pain and unnecessary suffering of themselves and their families.

Please take a moment from your lives and help these two fellow Americans. If you have noticed, they both have last names that are Spanish and they represent the melting pot of immigrants and ancestry that represents the good side of immigration – legal immigration. We must not turn our backs on them or forget them. The agents are American citizens, fellow Americans, who require our support.

http://ramos-compean.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-is-it-that-our-president-will-sign.html


Neither of them should have spent so much as 1 day in Prison!

[ClingingMars]

:toast

thank you Mr. Bush.

-Mars

[Wild Cobra]

To me any peace officer who breaks the law should pay a heavy price.
Looks like one of the few things we agree with.

[Winehole23]

Obama may have stingiest pardon record of any American president


Recently Grits dubbed the President "Obama the Merciless (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/05/obama-merciless.html)" for his remarkably parsimonious pardon policy, and now a story in U.S. News and World Report (http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/08/11585227-president-obama-stingy-on-pardons-says-clemency-expert?lite) takes on the same theme. It opens:

President Barack Obama is on track to be one of the least forgiving of presidents in U.S. history — as measured by his use of presidential pardon powers, according to a political science professor who blogs about clemency exercised by presidents and governors (http://www.pardonpower.com/2011/11/obamas-mercy-by-numbers.html).

"It is fair to say two things," said P.S. Ruckman Jr., who teaches at Rock Valley College in Rockville, Ill. "One is (Obama) is definitely being exceptionally stingy. There’s no doubt about that. There’s also no doubt that this is in a way unexpected."

As president, Obama has pardoned 23 people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_by_Barack_Obama), including one commuted sentence, in his first 40 months in office. Barring a dramatic flurry of clemency from the White House in the coming eight months, Obama will be among the bottom two or three presidents for granting pardons in his first term, Ruckman said. That puts him in the running with Presidents George Washington, John Adams and James Garfield, who was assassinated after serving less than seven months.

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/05/obama-may-have-stingiest-pardon-record.html

[Winehole23]

I don't understand this: Why does the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department exist if they consider essentially no one worthy of clemency? How has the President become so dis-empowered on the question that he can't or won't make independent judgments? Perhaps it's true that the role of advising the President on pardon applications should be removed from the Justice Department (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/12/institutional-prosecutorial-bias-limits.html) and handled instead by some appointed adviser or board who understands their job is to recommend pardons. For reasons Grits can scarcely understand, DOJ's Office of the Pardon Attorney seems to think their job is to find excuses to avoid performing the function (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/06/opinion/la-oew-morison-pardon-20101106) for which their division was created, and this president more than any other has acquiesced in the trend. As a constitutional scholar in his own right, Barack Obama of all people should know better.same

[FuzzyLumpkins]

How about make a case for people that should get pardons rather than just claim that he should. I think that he should pardon all nonviolent drug offenders but its not going to happen.

[DarrinS]

http://cedarconsulting.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/dust-off.jpg?w=450&h=299

[Winehole23]

fwiw, updated with a current news item to facilitate historical comparison

[Winehole23]

(Bush was way more merciful in a similar time frame)

[jack sommerset]

That is one awesome power the president has. I was surprised at first where he fell In the ranks, packing order compared to other presidents but then I lol. Obama is not the guy he sold us on. Good news is the election is right around the corner and he won't want to look like the tinman. God bless

[Sec24Row7]

He doesn't want to hurt his chances for re-election, so he refuses to pardon because it's universally believed that pardons make you look soft on crime...

[jack sommerset]

He doesn't want to hurt his chances for re-election, so he refuses to pardon because it's universally believed that pardons make you look soft on crime...

Damned if you do, damned if you don't thing. My point is that it made news so Obama will be playing some catch up. He will fall right around the middle by September. God bless



"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."

[Winehole23]

Will Barack Obama go down in history as our least merciful president? With less than two weeks to go in his first term, this reputedly progressive and enlightened man has a strong shot at winning that dubious distinction.


December, a traditional season for presidential clemency, has come and gone, and still Obama has granted (http://www.justice.gov/pardon/statistics.htm) just one commutation (which shortens a prisoner’s sentence) and 22 pardons (which clear people’s records, typically after they've completed their sentences). Barring a last-minute flurry of clemency actions, his first-term record looks weaker than those of all but a few previous presidents.


Which of Obama’s predecessors managed to make less use of the clemency power during their first terms? According to numbers (http://pardonresearch.com/prescomp/pardcommTerm.htm) compiled by P.S. Ruckman Jr., a professor of political science at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois, just three: George Washington, who probably did not have many clemency petitions to address during the first few years of the nation’s existence; William Henry Harrison, who died of pneumonia a month after taking office; and James Garfield, who was shot four months into his presidency and died that September.


With the exception of Washington's first term, then, Obama so far has been stingier with pardons and commutations than any other president, especially when you take into account the growth of the federal penal system during the last century, the elimination of parole, the proliferation of mandatory minimums, and the concomitant increase in petitions. This is a remarkable development for a man who proclaims (http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/why-barack-obama-thinks-life-is-all-about-second-chances-295642) that "life is all about second chances" and who has repeatedly described our criminal justice system as excessively harsh.

http://reason.com/archives/2013/01/09/barack-the-unmerciful

[TeyshaBlue]

INB4 Dubya, Dickhead, Repug, VRWC, Fucked & Unfuckable, Bankster, Human American, ad nauseum!


Obama, thus far, has taken the front end pardon model....let's not convict anyone of wrong doing..that way we don't have to mess with no pardons! (I'm looking at you, Bankers).

[Bill_Brasky]

INB4 Dubya, Dickhead, Repug, VRWC, Fucked & Unfuckable, Bankster, Human American, ad nauseum!


Obama, thus far, has taken the front end pardon model....let's not convict anyone of wrong doing..that way we don't have to mess with no pardons! (I'm looking at you, Bankers).

Yeah pretty hard to pardon when you don't press charges in the first place. *cough*HSBC*cough*

[Winehole23]

http://sullydish.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/presidential-pardons.png?w=580&h=517 (http://sullydish.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/presidential-pardons.png)

[Winehole23]

The statistics of presidential pardon ratios as of last year—that is, the ratio of pardons granted to the number of human pardon applicants—speak for themselves:



Ronald Reagan: 1 in 8

George H.W. Bush: 1 in 19

Bill Clinton: 1 in 16

George W. Bush: 1 in 55

Barack Obama: 1 in 290
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/11/26/presidential_turkey_pardon_obama_is_more_likely_to _pardon_turkeys_than_people.html

[Th'Pusher]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_by_Barack_Obama

[Winehole23]

I think that he should pardon all nonviolent drug offenders but its not going to happen.


A senior administration official tells Yahoo News the president could grant clemency to "hundreds, perhaps thousands" of people locked up for nonviolent drug crimes by the time he leaves office — a stunning number that hasn't been seen since Gerald Ford extended amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers in the 1970s.The scope of the new clemency initiative is so large that administration officials are preparing a series of personnel and process changes to help them manage the influx of petitions they expect Obama to approve.
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-plans-clemency-for-hundreds-of-drug-offenders--162714911.html

[FuzzyLumpkins]

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-plans-clemency-for-hundreds-of-drug-offenders--162714911.html

Hundreds perhaps thousands? Something is better than nothing but that should be increased by a couple orders considering the total number in the federal system. I imagine that what is being described there is the federal mandatory minimum being applied to nonviolent drug offenders. It is something Holder actually does other than pander to race politics with Al Sharpton.

[Winehole23]

The Justice Department has dramatically expanded the criteria for federal inmates eligible for presidential clemency and is preparing to receive thousands of applications (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/21/obama-clemency-drug-offenders_n_5186069.html) from prisoners caught up in the war on drugs.Deputy Attorney General James Cole unveiled the new criteria on Wednesday at a press conference at DOJ headquarters. He also announced the resignation of U.S. Pardon Attorney Ronald L. Rodgers, who is tasked with reviewing petitions for executive clemency and preparing recommendations for the White House.


Rodgers, appointed in 2008 during the George W. Bush administration, has long been criticized (http://www.propublica.org/article/pardon-attorney-torpedoes-plea-for-presidential-mercy) by criminal justice advocates, and the DOJ Inspector General found (http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2012/s1212.pdf) in 2012 that he "fell substantially short of the high standards to be expected of Department of Justice employees and of the duty that he owed to the President of the United States." Rodgers previously served as the head of the Drug Intelligence Unit inside DOJ's Criminal Division. Cole said he would soon name his replacement.


The most obvious candidates for clemency under the new guidelines, Cole said, are crack offenders sentenced before the passage of the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which lowered the disparity between mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of crack and powder cocaine-related crimes. The clemency guidelines won't only affect drug offenders, though that's the area where they will likely have the most impact.


Prisoners must meet the following six requirements in order to be eligible for clemency:



1) inmates who are currently serving a federal sentence in prison and, by operation of law, likely would have received a substantially lower sentence if convicted of the same offense today;
2) are non-violent, low-level offenders without significant ties to large-scale criminal organizations, gangs, or cartels;
3) have served at least 10 years of their sentence;
4) do not have a significant criminal history;
5) have demonstrated good conduct in prison; and
6) have no history of violence prior to or during their current term of imprisonment.


DOJ's Bureau of Prisons will be informing federal prisoners about the clemency guidelines next week and referring those who believe they are eligible to the Clemency Project, a joint initiative being run by several criminal justice organizations.


"We are launching this clemency initiative in order to quickly and effectively identify appropriate candidates, candidates who have a clean prison record, do not present a threat to public safety, and were sentenced under out-of-date laws that have since been changed, and are no longer seen as appropriate," Cole said in prepared remarks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/23/obama-clemency-doj_n_5196110.html

[boutons_deux]

It'll be a great day when non-violent mj possessors or small dealers walk free.

now, what about the same for county and state? Confederacy and red states certainly gonna keep their n!gg@s and wetbacks locked up.

[Winehole23]

Texas has recently closed three prisons; Tx Criminal Justice chair John Whitmire says more closings are likely.

[boutons_deux]

Texas has recently closed three prisons; Tx Criminal Justice chair John Whitmire says more closings are likely.

were prisoners released?

[Winehole23]

prisons were closed because the prison population in TX is shrinking.

[Winehole23]

criminal justice reform in TX is real

[boutons_deux]

prisons were closed because the prison population in TX is shrinking.

so no prisoners were released

another possibility is that TX saved money by transferring prisoners and overcrowding them elsewhere.

[Winehole23]

you're full of it, as usual