Congressman Cohen Applauds President’s Commuting Sentences of 22 Americans Serving Unjustly Long Sentences
[MEMPHIS, TN] - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today applauded President Obama’s decision to commute the sentences the sentences of 22 drug offenders serving sentences in federal prisons, including one Memphian who has already served nearly 20 years. Under current federal law, many of these prisoners would have already completed their sentences and been freed and today’s commutations indicate the President is finally moving towards a more just approach that makes broader use of his pardon and commutation powers to right the wrongs of outdated federal policies that have since been overturned by Congress. For years, the Congressman has repeatedly called on the President to make broader use of his pardon and commutation powers to address these injustices, including repeatedly urging Attorney General Holder to address the issue, in a letter sent to the President in June 2013, in a August 2013 speech on Capitol Hill and in a column that appeared in The Nation.
"These commutations for non-violent drug convictions are encouraging developments that indicate the President is implementing a more rational, humane clemency system for Americans who are unfairly incarcerated—something I have long encouraged,” said Congressman Cohen. “But these few commutations, while more than doubling the President’s total commutations and including a Memphian, do not solve our nation's justice problem. There still remain thousands of Americans languishing in prisons serving sentences that have been repudiated by both Congress and the President.”
The Fair Sentencing Act, which was passed by Congress with Congressman Cohen’s cosponsorship and signed into law by the President in 2010, marked a turning point in our nation’s approach to drug policy and took a critical step towards eliminating the dramatic and unfair disparity between crack and cocaine mandatory minimum sentences. But, as the President has mentioned, it “came too late” for thousands of people who were sentenced before the law was passed are still serving sentences that have been repudiated by Congress and the President. Now that the United States government has declared these sentences to be void against public policy, the President should use his commutation power to remedy this injustice for all of those still incarcerated under outdated sentences.
Congressman Cohen continued: “While we have made progress over the last few years in Congress, the laws that continue to create racially biased and unjust sentences must still be reformed. In the meantime, 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.”
Today’s commutations serve to highlight just how much more the President can do. 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.