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Obama Will Take ‘Executive Action’ to Reduce Prison Population
Cybercast News Service ^ | January 31, 2014 - 7:40 AM | Susan Jones

Posted on 01/31/2014 9:19:21 AM PST by Olog-hai

Congress can pass legislation giving judges more discretion in the sentencing of prisoners, but President Obama “also has the ability to take executive action” to commute the sentences of “low-level” drug offenders—and that’s just what he plans to do, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told the New York State Bar Association annual meeting on Thursday.

“A little over a month ago, the President commuted the sentences of eight men and women who were sentenced under severe—and out of date—mandatory minimum sentencing laws,” Cole said. …

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: clemency; commutation; drugoffenses; executiveorder; mandatoryminimum; obama; obamadictator
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To: FReepers

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21 posted on 01/31/2014 9:32:59 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Olog-hai

We’ve got plenty of empty prisons here in Michigan that would make great places to house elected traitors.


22 posted on 01/31/2014 9:33:50 AM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Red Badger

oh hey thanks
I’ll try that on the dog :-)


23 posted on 01/31/2014 9:34:17 AM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: Olog-hai

Yeah his son wants OUT! ! ! ! !


24 posted on 01/31/2014 9:34:53 AM PST by DeaconRed (ZERO: Resign now while you can. . . . . .)
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To: George from New England

They gotta pay for those drugs somehow, and they will sometimes do whatever they have to for their fix. The number one reason most people carry now somehow works back to drugs I think.

How many will repeat and be arrested for something within the first 3 months of getting out?

90%+ is my guess...


25 posted on 01/31/2014 9:35:54 AM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: Olog-hai
Awww...he just wants a shot at a better cell.
26 posted on 01/31/2014 9:37:02 AM PST by Dick Bachert (Ignorance is NOT BLISS. It is the ROAD TO SERFDOM! We're on a ROAD TRIP!!)
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To: Olog-hai

And of course since blacks are given stiffer sentences than whites and since blacks are more likely to use drugs purely because of the fact that they have been held back by the man and because they have been denied the opportunity to succeed. They will be the first ones released.


27 posted on 01/31/2014 9:37:28 AM PST by cquiggy
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To: Abathar

Possession with intent to deal is one of the easier things to prove in court..but lots of these critters are guilty of much worse and I expect that they will return to their previous occupations when they get out of prison.


28 posted on 01/31/2014 9:39:17 AM PST by Oldexpat
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To: Olog-hai

Commuting sentences and granting pardons is part of the Executive branch’s mandate to enforce the law. I don’t see this particular executive action as being unconstitutional.


29 posted on 01/31/2014 9:41:12 AM PST by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. ~Steve Earle)
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To: AU72

Just like he planned it.


30 posted on 01/31/2014 9:47:58 AM PST by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: Abathar
They gotta pay for those drugs somehow, and they will sometimes do whatever they have to for their fix.

Those who commit actual crimes to support their bad habits are the ones who deserve prosecution. And a primary reasons such people do commit crimes is because of the ridiculous costs which Prohibition causes by forcing people into the black market.

The vast majority of "partiers" are everyday Americans who don't commit crimes, work hard at their jobs, and don't belong in prison for possessing the wrong plant, medicine, or chemical (or gun, for that matter, because there People who commit actual crime is logically where the line should be drawn, not mass incarceration for violating contraband laws.

Keep real criminals behind bars longer, and focus on rehabilitating people with substance abuse problems, and society will be a better place, without all the Tyranny.

31 posted on 01/31/2014 9:48:34 AM PST by sargon (I don't like the sound of these here Boncentration Bamps!)
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To: alancarp
In that case, it was federal drug charges. The argument was - as is now, it seems - that the sentencing guidelines were reduced since these guys were convicted, and thus it's "unfair" that they are still in prison.

I'd argue that they should have known the risks and chose to break the law anyway.

I'd argue that the federal drug-laws are illegitimate in the first place.
Consider that in order to regulate alcohol the eighteenth-amendment was passed — no such amendment exists WRT drugs.
Consider, also, that the regulations are applies on an intrastate scope while congress's "commerce clause" power is supposed to be interstate.
Consider that the interstate commerce clause has been expanded from intrastate commerce to included non-commerce.
(See Wickard, and Raich)

32 posted on 01/31/2014 9:49:01 AM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: silverleaf

When it comes to dogs I don’t think he makes executive orders, he makes lunch orders.


33 posted on 01/31/2014 9:49:47 AM PST by bigheadfred
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To: Abathar
They gotta pay for those drugs somehow, and they will sometimes do whatever they have to for their fix.

I fixed an editing error:

Those who commit actual crimes to support their bad habits are the ones who deserve prosecution. And a primary reasons such people do commit crimes is because of the ridiculous costs which Prohibition causes by forcing people into the black market.

The vast majority of "partiers" are everyday Americans who don't commit crimes, work hard at their jobs, and don't belong in prison for possessing the wrong plant, medicine, or chemical (or gun, for that matter, because there are people who get railroaded for that, too.)

People who commit actual crime is logically where the line should be drawn, not mass incarceration for violating contraband laws.

Keep real criminals behind bars longer, and focus on rehabilitating people with substance abuse problems, and society will be a better place, without all the Tyranny.

34 posted on 01/31/2014 9:50:52 AM PST by sargon (I don't like the sound of these here Boncentration Bamps!)
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To: BuckeyeTexan
Commuting sentences and granting pardons is part of the Executive branch’s mandate to enforce the law. I don’t see this particular executive action as being unconstitutional.

Same here — and given that the War on Drugs is an entirely illegitimate system, I don't have any argument against this.

35 posted on 01/31/2014 9:51:04 AM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Olog-hai

I suppose it’s easier for criminals to vote Democrat MORE THAN ONCE if they’re not in prison.


36 posted on 01/31/2014 9:51:51 AM PST by CivilWarBrewing
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To: silverleaf

No, silly, this is for dogs!.....................

37 posted on 01/31/2014 9:56:39 AM PST by Red Badger (Proud member of the Zeta Omicron Tau Fraternity since 2004...................)
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To: Olog-hai
"Low level drug offenders"


38 posted on 01/31/2014 9:59:17 AM PST by null and void (<--- unwilling cattle-car passenger on the bullet train to serfdom)
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To: Olog-hai
White and Asians go to prison. Especially those with assets they can consume to fund the for profit sector in the legal system.

Blacks and latinos will never do time for anything. Their legal costs are a burden on our for profit legal system.

39 posted on 01/31/2014 9:59:55 AM PST by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: Olog-hai

Affirmative Action Pardon Program?


40 posted on 01/31/2014 10:02:07 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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