Obama goes on pardon spree

As they rode in the presidential limousine to the U. S. Capitol on Inauguration Day in 2009, former president George W. Bush offered some last minute advice to president- elect Barack Obama: Announce a pardon policy early and stick to it.

“On the ride up Pennsylvania Avenue ... I told Barack Obama about my frustrations with the pardon system,” Bush wrote in his memoir.

Obama didn’t seriously focus on pardons and computations until 2014, two years into his second term. But, on Thursday, his last full day in office, Obama announced 330 more computations, bringing his total number of clemencies to 1,715. He has granted computations to more people than the last 12 presidents combined, more than 500 them to inmates with life sentences.

“By restoring proportionality to unnecessarily long drug sentences, this administration has made a lasting impact on our criminal justice system,” said Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. “With 1,715 computations in total, this undertaking was as enormous as it was unprecedented.”

MY HEART ACHES FOR THOSE WHO WILL NOT MAKE THE CUT.

In his final batch of clemencies this week Obama commuted the 35-year prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army private convicted of stealing secret diplomatic and military documents and giving them to WikiLeaks, after deciding that Manning had served enough time. The president also granted a commutation to Oscar Lopez Rivera, a Puerto Rican independence activist who was a member of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), a terrorist organization that killed and wounded people in the 1970s and 1980s with bomb attacks.

A Texas lawyer, who represented seven inmates who have received clemency from Obama over the last two years, praised the president Thursday for recognizing that the “criminal justice system is broken” and restoring “a sense of fairness.”

“His gracious act of mercy today sealed his clemency legacy and allowed many truly deserving men and women to be reunited with their families,” said Brittany Byrd.

But other activists expressed disappointment that Obama had not granted an early release to more deserving inmates.“It’s fantastic that the president is using his last days in office to continue to grant clemency to deserving prisoners,” said Julie Stewart, founder and chairman of the board of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. “But my heart aches for those who will not make the cut.”