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Buckwheat Commutes/Pardons Crackheads

Mike

Well-known member
President Barack Obama on Thursday commuted the sentences of eight people he said were serving unduly harsh sentences for drug crimes in the most expansive use yet of his presidential power to free inmates.

Obama made the commutations because the prisoners were sentenced under a system that treated convictions for crack cocaine offenses harsher than powder cocaine. Obama also pardoned 13 others for various crimes.

The president signed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010 to reduce penalties for crack cocaine offenses in order to reduce the disparity with powder cocaine penalties. But the act addressed only new cases, not old ones.

Obama said those whose sentences he commuted have served at least 15 years in prison, many under mandatory minimums that required judges to impose the long sentences even if they didn't think it fit the crime.

"If they had been sentenced under the current law, many of them would have already served their time and paid their debt to society," Obama said in a written statement. "Instead, because of a disparity in the law that is now recognized as unjust, they remain in prison, separated from their families and their communities, at a cost of millions of taxpayer dollars each year."

Previously, Obama had commuted only one sentence in the five years of his presidency, involving another drug case. He previously had pardoned 39 people. A pardon forgives a crime and wipes out the conviction, while a commutation leaves the conviction but ends the punishment.

In August, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a major shift in federal sentencing policies, targeting long mandatory terms that he said have flooded the nation's prisons with low-level drug offenders and diverted crime-fighting dollars that could be far better spent.

As a first step, Holder has instructed federal prosecutors to stop charging many nonviolent drug defendants with offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences. His next step will be working with a bipartisan group in Congress to give judges greater discretion in sentencing.

Obama encouraged Congress to act in the new year to bring more fairness to the system.

"Commuting the sentences of these eight Americans is an important step toward restoring fundamental ideals of justice and fairness," Obama said. "But it must not be the last. In the new year, lawmakers should act on the kinds of bipartisan sentencing reform measures already working their way through Congress. Together, we must ensure that our taxpayer dollars are spent wisely, and that our justice system keeps its basic promise of equal treatment for all."
 

Steve

Well-known member
the mandatory sentences came into play because some judges were letting off drug pushers with little to no consequences..

I am against mandatory and zero tolerance as it leaves no room for common sense approaches,,

a better option would be to just fire crappy judges...

as for crack.. it is one nasty highly addictive destructive drug .. and those who push, posses and sell it need to go away for a long time..
 

Tom in TN

Well-known member
How in the world can our republic survive when our Executive branch of the government has no respect for the law? Eric Holder is a disgrace. Did these two paragraphs from the cited article strike a chord of anarchy when you read them?


"In August, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a major shift in federal sentencing policies, targeting long mandatory terms that he said have flooded the nation's prisons with low-level drug offenders and diverted crime-fighting dollars that could be far better spent.

As a first step, Holder has instructed federal prosecutors to stop charging many nonviolent drug defendants with offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences. His next step will be working with a bipartisan group in Congress to give judges greater discretion in sentencing."


So, the drug pushers are going to be charged with low-level crimes to avoid the mandatory sentences that are prescribed by law. Can we survive three more years of this oligarchy?

Tom in TN
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Meanwhile, he helps illegals smuggle their kids across the border, so the parents can gain citizenship, because....no doubt, those kids were born in the US.


Where was obama born? Who was his father?

No matter...just a conspiracy theory and him not producing his BC had nothing to do with his honesty, or transparency.

Where's "blind as a bat" Alice? Or, "my friends know everything" Reader 1 and 2?

Maybe those 2 could enlighten us on how we were wrong in 2008...
 
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