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Cohen Welcomes New U.S. Pardon Attorney, Hopes Appointment Signals Shift in Administration's Use of Clemency Powers

April 23, 2014

Congressman Cohen has urged the Administration to make broader use of its pardon and commutation powers

[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today welcomed the announcement that Deborah Leff, the Acting Senior Counselor for Access to Justice at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), will replace Ronald Rodgers as the head of the DOJ’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. While the Pardon Attorney’s office is charged with recommending worthy applicants for pardons or commutations, Rodgers had a mediocre record of supporting clemency requests and was even admonished by the DOJ’s Inspector General for misrepresenting and withholding critical information from the President.

“For too long, the Pardon Attorney has approached his position more like a jailhouse guard than someone charged with bringing justice and freedom to those who deserve it,” said Congressman Cohen. “I am glad that the Administration is replacing an attorney who has been admonished for misrepresenting critical information to the President with someone who has committed her career to providing Americans equal access to the justice they deserve. I wish Deborah Leff good luck in her new role, and hope that her office quickly begins to fulfill its mission of restoring liberty to those whose debt to society has long since been paid.”

The appointment of Deborah Leff follows requests from Congressman Cohen to replace Rodgers as pardon attorney and for the President to make broader use of his pardon and commutation powers to address injustices. These requests include urging Attorney General Eric Holder to address the issue on multiple occasions (most recently at a House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month), a letter sent to the President in June 2013, an August 2013 speech on Capitol Hill and a stirring column that appeared in The Nation. The pardon and commutation powers are, in addition to being the speediest method of bringing needed justice to thousands of people incarcerated under outdated crack cocaine sentences, one of the few actions that the President can take without being blocked or delayed by an obstructionist Congress.

Earlier this week, the Congressman also applauded the Administration’s newly-expanded criteria for considering requests for executive clemency, saying at the time: “From my first day in Congress, advocating for fairer sentencing laws and realistically examining sentencing disparities has been a centerpiece of my legislative agenda. I am very encouraged by the prospect that these new clemency criteria will give deserving non-violent drug offenders a second chance at freedom, improve our justice system, and save taxpayers money. President Obama can and should use his Constitutional power to help bring all of these inmates the justice they deserve, and I hope he does so as soon as possible.”

The Administration’s new clemency criteria, announced on Monday and fully detailed by Deputy Attorney General James Cole this morning, will take an important step towards bringing justice to hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans still serving time in prison under unjust sentences that would not be ordered today, sentences that have been repudiated by Congress and the President. Under the new criteria, the Department of Justice will prioritize clemency applications from non-violent inmates who meet all of the following factors:

  • They are currently serving a federal sentence in prison and, by operation of law, likely would have received a substantially lower sentence if convicted of the same offense(s) today;
  • They are non-violent, low-level offenders without significant ties to large scale criminal organizations, gangs or cartels;
  • They have served at least 10 years of their prison sentence;
  • They do not have a significant criminal history;
  • They have demonstrated good conduct in prison; and
  • They have no history of violence prior to or during their current term of imprisonment.

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which Congressman Cohen cosponsored and the President signed into law, marked a turning point in our nation’s approach to drug policy and took a critical step towards eliminating the dramatic and unfair 100:1 disparity between crack and cocaine mandatory minimum sentences. Prior to President Obama signing the bill into law, those arrested for crack cocaine offenses—mostly young, African American men—were subject to far harsher penalties than those arrested for powder cocaine offenses, who are more likely to be Caucasian. An offender arrested with a mere 5 grams of crack cocaine would have faced the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as an offender arrested with 500 grams of powder cocaine. While the law reduced the disparity, it did not apply retroactively to thousands of people who were sentenced before the law was passed are still serving sentences that have been repudiated by Congress and the President. These people should be made eligible for clemency under the new criteria.