WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama commuted the prison sentences of 95 criminals on Friday, most of whom were non-violent drug offenders, the White House said.
Many were convicted of distributing or possessing cocaine or crack-cocaine, and many of the offenders had been sentenced to life in prison.
In July, Obama commuted the prison sentences of 46 drug offenders, saying in a video that the men and women were not “hardened criminals” and that their punishments didn’t match the crimes they committed. The move brings the number of Obama’s commutations to nearly 185.
Most of those have been for federal prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses who received long sentences mandated under guidelines set during a drug-and-crime wave in the 1980s. Under current sentencing guidelines, most of those prisoners would have already finished serving time.
The president also granted pardons to two individuals, Jon Dylan Girard and Melody Eileen Homa. Girard was pardoned in a counterfeiting case, and Homa was pardoned in a bank fraud case.
Unlike a presidential pardon, a commutation reduces a sentence but does not erase a criminal conviction.