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Congressman Cohen Commends President Obama for Commuting Sentences of 111 Americans Serving Unjustly Long Sentences

August 30, 2016

[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today commended President Obama’s decision to commute the sentences of 111 largely non-violent drug offenders. Earlier this month, President Obama announced the commutation of sentences for 214 non-violent drug offenders. With today’s additional 111 grants, the President has commuted the sentences of 325 people in the month of August alone. This is the greatest number of commutations ever granted by a president in a single month. Today’s commutations represent the President’s continued commitment to using his pardon and commutation powers to right the wrongs of outdated and discriminatory federal policies, and to provide a second chance to deserving individuals.

“Continued commutations for those serving unjustly long sentences for non-violent drug convictions are encouraging, yet so many more need the same justice” said Congressman Cohen. “I have long advocated for a more rational criminal justice system and for the President to use his commutation power to help bring that about.

“While addressing sentencing disparities for those convicted of crimes involving crack cocaine is important, I am pleased that today’s commutations also address marijuana. Marijuana does not pose the kind of public threat that dangerous drugs do. Yet we continue to keep marijuana as a Schedule I drug, and Americans are having their liberty taken away from them for marijuana possession. This is not just unfair, it is nonsensical. Marijuana should not even be in the same league with crack, cocaine, and heroin—drugs that are currently scheduled as lesser drugs in our outdated and illogical drug scheduling scheme.

“I commend President Obama for issuing these Presidential commutations, yet I encourage him to continue to commute more unjust sentences during his remaining time in office, particularly for those who are serving unnecessary and unjustly long terms for marijuana, and not predominantly crack cocaine.”

Congressman Cohen has repeatedly called on the President to make broader use of his pardon and commutation powers to address injustices, including a February 2016 column in the Commercial Appeal calling on increased staffing at the White House Counsel’s Office to review clemency petitions, a May 2015 column in the Blue Nation Review on the need to bring fairness back to the criminal justice system, a November 2014 column that appeared in The Hill, repeatedly urging then-Attorney General Holder to address the issue, in a letter sent to the President in June 2013, in an August 2013 speech on Capitol Hill and in an August 2013 column that appeared in The Nation.

The Fair Sentencing Act, which was passed by Congress with Congressman Cohen’s co-sponsorship and signed into law by the President in 2010, marked a turning point in our nation’s approach to drug policy and was a crucial step toward eliminating the dramatic and unfair disparity between crack and powder cocaine mandatory minimum sentences. But, as the President has noted, it “came too late” for thousands of people who were sentenced before the law was passed and who are still serving sentences imposed under outdated laws. The bipartisan Sentencing Reform Act of 2015, which passed the House Judiciary Committee in November, would in part make the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive. Congressman Cohen is a cosponsor of this bill.