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

[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/20...an_people.html

[Th'Pusher]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...y_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 pe ions they expect Obama to approve.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-plans-cl...162714911.html

[FuzzyLumpkins]

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-plans-cl...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 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 pe ions for executive clemency and preparing recommendations for the White House.


Rodgers, appointed in 2008 during the George W. Bush administration, has long been criticized by criminal justice advocates, and the DOJ Inspector General found 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/2014/0...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 s 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