Obama commutes 102 more sentences, setting one-year record
President Barack Obama. Image from Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com.
President Barack Obama on Thursday commuted the sentences of 102 federal inmates, setting a record for the highest number of commutations in a single year.
Obama has commuted 590 sentences this year, which are among 774 commutations during his presidency, report USA Today, the Washington Post and the White House blog. The 774 commutations are more than that of the previous 11 presidents combined.
Most of the commutations were for drug crimes, according to the White House blog. One inmate whose sentence was commuted was 53-year-old Ricky Minor, who was sent to prison in 2001 for attempting to manufacture methamphetamine. He had received a mandatory sentence of life without parole, according to the Post.
“Thanks to President Obama,” Minor said, “I now have the chance to make my family proud of me, earn pride in myself, and be a person in society who is helpful and useful.”
Some of the inmates who won commutations will not be released immediately, according to USA Today. Before August, most inmates with commuted sentences were released within four months. In August, however, 39 percent of the inmates with commuted sentences will have to serve a year or more of their sentence.
“What started as a relatively simply move to reduce the sentences of those convicted of drug crimes,” USA Today reports, “has turned into a move to grant commutations to inmates convicted of more serious crimes. That has meant commuting sentences without immediately releasing the inmates in what are known as ‘term’ commutations.”
