President Barack Obama Pardons 78, Cuts Sentences for 153

by Guest Tue Dec 20, 2016 1:35 am

President Barack Obama Pardons 78, Cuts Sentences for 153
Total number of pardons by the president is more than doubled
Until now President Barack Obama had granted fewer pardons than any of his predecessors since the Justice Department began publishing statistics.
By Carol E. Lee The Wall Street Journal
Dec. 19, 2016 4:15 p.m. ET
HONOLULU—President Barack Obama granted clemency to 231 federal inmates, including 78 pardons, more than half of the total pardons he has ordered while in office, the White House announced Monday.
Until now Mr. Obama had granted fewer pardons—70—than any of his predecessors since the Justice Department began publishing statistics. The 78 he granted on Monday include individuals convicted of drug, fraud, firearms and other offenses. Pardons go further than commutations by wiping out convictions and restoring civil liberties.
Mr. Obama also commutated, or reduced, sentences for 153 individuals, largely for drug offenses.
White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said in a statement that Mr. Obama’s commutations “exemplify his belief that America is a nation of second chances.” He said Monday’s moves mark “the most individual acts of clemency granted in a single day by any president in this nation’s history.”
Mr. Obama has commuted the sentences of 1,176 individuals, including 395 life sentences, Mr. Eggleston said.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/president-barack-obama-pardons-78-cuts-sentences-for-153-1482182155

So many things - so many moments to remember, so many lost opportunities to have moved this nation even further than he has ...lost because of the political stymied mentality of the GOP.
He wasn't the messiah that so many ugly/resentful racists claimed he represented for the minorities of America but he had a basic need to do the RIGHT THING for a country wallowing in financial ruin.
I'm glad that he's giving so many of those incarcerated by the unfair 3 strikes your out guidelines and allowing those humans another chance at life. Often they were incarnated longer then serial rapists and murderers were. Such a travesty of justice.