Congressman Cohen Commends President Obama for Commuting Sentences of 214 Americans Serving Unjustly Long Sentences

[MEMPHIS, TN] - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice and leading Congressional advocate for more justice through Presidential commutations, today commended President Obama’s decision to commute the sentences of 214 non-violent drug offenders incarcerated in federal prisons, including one Memphian. This is the largest single-day batch of commutations by a President since 1900. Under current federal law, many of these prisoners would have already completed their sentences and been released. Today’s commutations indicate the President is continuing to move towards a more just approach that makes broader use of his pardon and commutation powers to right the wrongs of outdated federal policies that have since been overturned by Congress.

"I commend President Obama for issuing the largest single-day batch of Presidential commutations in more than a century,” said Congressman Cohen. “These commutations, many of which were for those serving unjustly long sentences for non-violent drug convictions, are an encouraging development and a significant step by the President toward a more rational and fair justice system—something I have long encouraged. I am pleased that one of the President’s commuted sentences today was of a Memphian, but there still remain others languishing in prisons serving sentences that have been repudiated by both Congress and the President. Not only do our nation’s outdated drug laws disproportionately affect minority populations, but it also costs more than $30,000 per year to incarcerate each individual. I hope the President continues and accelerates his efforts to commute unjust sentences during his remaining time in office.”

For years, Congressman Cohen has repeatedly called on the President to make broader use of his pardon and commutation powers to address these 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.