With new grant, Obama reaches clemency milestone

Liz Goodwin
·Senior National Affairs Reporter
President Barack Obama answers a question during a news conference at the Pentagon. President Barack Obama has cut short the sentences of 111 federal inmates in another round of commutations for those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
President Obama (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

President Obama announced he would free 79 more drug offenders from federal prison Tuesday, pushing the total number of commutations under his tenure to over 1,000.

With this new grant, Obama has handed out more commutations than the past 11 presidents combined, part of his 2014 decision to use his previously dormant clemency power in a new and aggressive way. That year, the Justice Department asked prisoners who had been sentenced for nonviolent drug crimes to apply for clemency, funneling them through a group of pro-bono lawyers to help them with their petitions. The president saw his commutation power as a way to correct for overly harsh drug sentences that sent people away to prison for decades and sometimes life for nonviolent crimes.

“He is committed to using his clemency power in ways not seen from any other president in the modern era,” White House Counsel Neil Eggleston told reporters. He said the commutations send a message that the U.S. is a “nation of second chances.”

Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said that her office is committed to processing the remaining 6,300 drug petitions and getting them to the president’s desk before he leaves office. It’s unclear how many more of them Obama will grant, though Eggleston said there will almost certainly be more before Jan. 20. Most drug prisoners who have received grants so far had served at least 10 years in prison for a drug crime.

The administration officials said they don’t know whether a Trump White House will pursue Obama’s aggressive use of clemency. Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, has called Obama’s commutations “reckless” and an abuse of executive power. He pointed out that some of the freed prisoners were also serving time on firearms charges.

“This president has been personally committed to this,” said Eggleston. “This White House has cared a lot about it, this Department of Justice has cared a lot about it. But I can’t really talk to whether the next administration would have a similar sense of enthusiasm.”