clemency
Legal jargon associated with former president Obama’s final humane acts toward federal prisoners is an interesting study. Let’s look at the lexicon and meanings of legal words in the context of possible prisoners’ benefits.
On January 17, 2017, then president Obama gave 273 federal inmates a second chance. Neil Eggleston, counsel to the former president, announced commutations and pardons, stating, “With today’s 209 grants of commutation, the President has now commuted the sentences of 1,385 individuals—the most grants of commutation issued by any President in this nation’s history.”… Read the rest
The September 12–19, 2016, issue of Time, in its Ticker section on page 12, has a short entry: “President Obama commuted the sentences of 111 prisoners on Aug. 30, bringing the number of early releases he has granted to 673—more than the previous 10 Presidents combined. Most were drug offenders.”
Those who appreciate the unfairness of the harsh mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines baked into the punitive sentencing guidelines of the “War on Drugs” (the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986), clap with one hand for the president’s actions.… Read the rest