President Obama on Friday continued his press to overhaul the nation’s sentencing laws for drug-related crimes by commuting the prisons terms of another 42 federal felons.
Obama already had commuted more sentences than any other president before Friday’s actions, and his total is now 348. The closest to him were Presidents Clinton and Nixon, with 61 and 60, respectively.
In announcing his third round of mass commutations, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said the 42 inmates were “serving years in prison under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws. The individuals receiving a presidential commutation today have more than repaid their debt to society and earned this second chance.”
Eggleston said Obama will continue to wield his clemency power until he leaves office but called on Congress to pass pending bipartisan legislation to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system, including sentencing reform, giving judges more discretion in sentence terms and restoring felons’ franchise rights.
“There remain thousands of men and women in federal prison serving sentences longer than necessary,” Eggleston wrote. “That is one reason it is critical that both the House and the Senate continue to cooperate on a bipartisan basis to get a criminal justice reform bill to the president’s desk.”
