ACLU Comment on President Obama’s Commutations and Pardons
WASHINGTON, DC – The White House announced that the federal prison sentences of 95 people would be commuted. Two people were pardoned. Five of those with commuted sentences were featured in the American Civil Liberties Union’s report A Living Death: Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses. The ACLU is a founding member of Clemency Project 2014, which assists federal prisoners with clemency petitions.
Jeffery Robinson, Deputy Legal Director and Director of the ACLU’s Center for Justice, had this comment:
“Today President Obama changed the lives of 95 federal prisoners who had been serving sentences that were too harsh for their crimes. He has given these people and their families the justice and hope they have deserved for so long.
“Thousands will remain in prison, trapped by draconian punishments they don’t deserve, many of them casualties in the failed war on drugs. We encourage the president to leave no one behind.”
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