President Obama's deputy Attorney General James Cole informed the New York State Bar Association yeterday that President Obama plans to use executive orders to commute the sentences of many felons he and the Justice Department consider "low-level" offenders like drug dealers, regardless of state or federal sentencing guidelines:
"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over a month ago, the President commuted the sentences of eight men and women who were sentenced under severe -- and out of date -- mandatory minimum sentencing laws," Cole said.
"But the President’s grant of commutations for these eight individuals is only a first step. There is more to be done, because there are others like the eight who were granted clemency. There are more low-level, non-violent drug offenders who remain in prison, and who would likely have received a substantially lower sentence if convicted of precisely the same offenses today. This is not fair, and it harms our criminal justice system.
"To help correct this, we need to identify these individuals and get well-prepared petitions into the Department of Justice. It is the Department’s goal to find additional candidates, who are similarly situated to the eight granted clemency last year, and recommend them to the President for clemency consideration."
Cole is all but ordering the various state bar associations to make lists of candidates for early release and write up their commutation petitions.
I'm certain you can translate this.
While Cole described described qualified clemency candidates as non-violent, low-level drug offenders not involved in gang or cartel activity, first-time offenders and those without what Cole called 'an extensive criminal history', the reality is that a great deal of leeway is going to be given on what constitutes 'an extensive criminal history', just as illegal aliens who are candidates for the President's illegal 'Dream Act' amnesty or similar amnesty ready programs are to be forgiven for felonies like drunk driving, theft and certain types of assault.I mean really,how many first time offenders without lengthy rap sheets get long sentences? And I can also tell you from experience that most drug dealers indeed have a long criminal history (it's not like you can get a degree and set up shop) and are connected to a gang, one of the various mafias or some organization involved in wholesale importing. Like any other retailer, drug dealers need to have a wholesaler supplying them with product. And anyone trying to sell without that connection as a freelancer usually ends up being warned once and being 'invited' to become an employee, as opposed to tasking a dirt nap - if he's lucky.
The real trick here is to destroy policies like California's 3 strikes that puts career criminals with 3 felonies in jail for life and have played a major role in cutting down on crime.And I don't doubt in the least it will be administered mostly on racial grounds, given how our Justice Department works these days.
This won't change things much in New York, where the citizenry has already been effectively disarmed. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if it wasn't also a move to try to gin up calls for gun confiscation in other places.
After all, a recently released felon isn't going to go out and get a job at McDonald's or Walmart, especially in the new Obama economy. Most of them are going to go back to the profession they know, armed with tools of that trade obtained from their connections.
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