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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — JaPharii Jones lost the right to vote after a felony burglary conviction when he was 23 and got it back last year right before Election Day. Now the 31-year-old Hampton activist and founder of a local chapter of Black Lives Matter plans to do what most people usually don't: vote in an off-off-year primary for Virginia governor. Jones is supporting Tom Perriello, a former congressman and diplomat running as an insurgent candidate in the Democratic primary. Perriello was "very diligent" about reaching out to Jones and recently toured parts of Hampton with Jones looking for votes...

President Obama granted commutations to another 79 federal drug offenders Tuesday, pushing the number of inmates he has granted clemency past 1,000. Obama’s historic number of commutations was announced as administration officials are moving quickly to rule on all the pending clemency applications from inmates before the end of the year. The Trump administration is not expected to keep in place Obama’s initiative to provide relief to nonviolent drug offenders.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe has illegally granted voting rights to 60,000 convicted felons in the key swing state of Virginia, a move that could give Hillary Clinton a victory in that state—and possibly the White House—unless supporters of Donald Trump get out to the polls on Election Day. Like many states, the Virginia Constitution provides that if a person commits a felony, with their lawbreaking, they forfeit the right to vote for candidates who will make and enforce those laws. But it also grants the Virginia governor clemency power to pardon criminals and commute sentences, including the power to restore voting...

The news that Virginia’s Governor Terry McAuliffe had secretly pardoned 60,000 felons in his state came as a big surprise to many people. Nevertheless, it can be seen as a sign of desperation and a move that is might be more bark than bite. From what we are able to piece together, McAuliffe used a mechanical pen to sign 60,000 pardons and therefore give voting rights to worst people in his state. That pardon went to murderers rapists robbers kidnappers and even child molesters with the hope they would vote for Hillary Clinton and guarantee him a place in a...

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has granted voting rights to as many as 60,000 convicted felons just in time for them to register to vote, nearly five times more than previously reported and enough to win the state for his long-time friend, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. McAuliffe sought to allow all of Virginia's estimated 200,000 felons to vote, but state courts said each individual felon's circumstances must be weighed. To get around that, McAuliffe used a mechanical autopen to rapidly sign thousands of letters, as if he had personally reviewed them, even as his office was saying the total was 13,000.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has granted voting rights to as many as 60,000 convicted felons just in time for them to register to vote, nearly five times more than previously reported and enough to win the state for his long-time friend, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. McAuliffe sought to allow all of Virginia’s estimated 200,000 felons to vote, but state courts said each individual felon’s circumstances must be weighed. To get around that, McAuliffe used a mechanical autopen to rapidly sign thousands of letters, as if he had personally reviewed them, even as his office was saying the total was 13,000....

By the age of 16, Muhamad As-saddique Abdul-Rahman was already a felon. Thirty-seven years later, he is ready to be called something else -- a voter. When Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced his plan in April to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons, Abdul-Rahman, who spent nearly two decades behind bars for armed robbery before struggling with drug and alcohol abuse, immediately logged online to check on his voting status. He discovered that, for the first time in his life, he was eligible to vote. "I was not whole when I came out of prison, both politically and...

The latest round brings to 774 the number of sentences Obama has commuted, including 590 this year. The White House says it’s more than the previous 11 presidents put together. Almost all of those receiving commutations were convicted of drug-related offenses. Most are considered nonviolent offenders, although some were convicted of firearms charges in connection with drug crimes. Many of the recipients had been serving life sentences.

Despite widespread opposition from law enforcement, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed a bill that will allow thousands of felons in county jails to vote in California elections as part of an effort to speed their transition back into society. Through a representative, Brown declined to comment on the bill by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), who said it would reduce the likelihood of convicts committing new crimes.

Obama has issued 325 commutations this month and 673 in total. A number of the summaries posted by the White House among the new 111 commutations said that the individual whose sentence resident Obama was commuting had been in possession of a firearm while committing a drug-related crime.

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 - U.S. President Barack Obama shortened the prison sentences of 111 convicts serving time for drug-related offenses in his second round of clemency grants this month, the White House said on Tuesday. Obama has now granted a total of 673 commutations during his presidency, more than the number granted by the 10 previous presidents combined, as he seeks to reform the criminal justice system, it said. For some of the convicts, the commutations mean they will serve only half of their original prison sentences. For instance, Sly Stallone Aikens of South Carolina, serving a sentence of 36

erry McAuliffe is a Hillary Clinton pal. He fronted $1.3 million for her house in Chappaqua, New York. We should all have such friends. Thanks to the Republicans who shut down the government in 2013, McAuliffe is now the governor of Virginia, a swing state, and thus in a position to help Clinton get another house -- on Pennsylvania Avenue. Any governor has political strings to pull, but Gov. McAuliffe is going beyond sharing voter information, get-out-the-vote operations and other traditional political tools. He's creating new voters by unilaterally restoring voting rights to 206,000 convicted felons. McAuliffe is focused on...

A defiant Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Monday that he again restored the voting rights of about 13,000 felons who served their time after his previous attempt was thwarted by Republican lawmakers and the state Supreme Court. Virginia's highest court ruled in July that governors cannot restore rights en masse, but must consider each offender on a case-by-case basis. That ruling invalidated a sweeping executive order issued by McAuliffe in April that had given back the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons who completed their sentences. McAuliffe blasted the court Monday for ignoring the "the clear text of the...

But in the same speech here, he again slammed an order by the state's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, to restore voting rights to some convicted felons who have completed their sentences, a move McAuliffe says could help African-Americans who were disproportionally affected by laws that put lifetime bans on felons. "The GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln," Trump said. "I want our party to be the home of the African-American voter once again."

Donald Trump on Wednesday again slammed Hillary Clinton and her campaign for allowing the father of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen to sit in the stands behind her at a recent rally. But sitting behind Trump was ex-congressman Mark Foley, who resigned in disgrace in 2006 after sending sexually explicit messages to underage teenage boys.

The conditions of John Hinckley Jr.'s full-time release from a psychiatric hospital after a three-decade long commitment are a laundry list of dos and don'ts meant to help him assimilate into society — he can’t own a gun, he must work or volunteer three days a week, and he can't have any overnight guests while staying alone at his mother’s home in Williamsburg, Virginia. But one privilege that won’t be curtailed any longer is his right to vote - meaning that come November, the only living man to have shot a U.S. president could register to be among the millions...

Richard Reid was already a two-time felon when authorities searched his Delaware apartment and found marijuana, crack cocaine divided into sales-size plastic bags, powder cocaine, a scale — and a loaded .32 caliber handgun, an unloaded .25 caliber pistol and ammunition for two other types of weapons. Last week, President Obama commuted Reid’s 25-year sentence and made him one of the hundreds of drug users and dealers who the White House says have done enough time. But at the same time, Mr. Obama forgave scores of gun crimes convictions for the offenders, raising thorny questions about whether the White House...

One of the real scumbags on America's death row is pulling for Hillary Clinton. I don’t have official confirmation of this mind you. But if I was a convicted death row inmate, convicted for killing my baby and my baby mama, who I also had happened to be married to at the time I whacked them, I’d be pulling for Hillary big time. You see convicted death row inmate Scott Peterson and Hillary Clinton agree on something very close to their hearts: a core belief that an unborn child has zero rights.  The fact that he killed his wife says a great...

The Supreme Court of Virginia on Friday struck down Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s executive order restoring voting rights to 206,000 felons, dealing a severe blow to what the governor has touted as one of his proudest achievements in office. In a 4-3 ruling, the court declared McAuliffe’s order unconstitutional, saying it amounts to a unilateral rewrite and suspension of the state’s policy of lifetime disenfranchisement for felons. The court ordered the Virginia Department of Elections to “cancel the registration of all felons who have been invalidly registered” under McAuliffe’s April 22 executive order and subsequent orders. As of this week, 11,662...

The Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled against Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s order restoring voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who completed their sentences, a decision that dealt a major blow to the Democratic governor and has implications for the November presidential race in the crucial swing state. In a 4-3 ruling issued Friday, the court ruled that McAuliffe overstepped his clemency powers under the state constitution by issuing a sweeping order in April restoring rights to all ex-offenders who are no longer incacerated or on probation or parole. The court agreed with state Republicans who challenge McAuliffe’s order, arguing...