Obama commutes sentences of 95, pardons 2 in year-end spree

Two former St. Petersburg residents are among 95 offenders whose sentences have been commuted by President Barack Obama in a year-end spree.

However, Obama has been criticized because the number of sentences commuted is far less than former Attorney General Eric Holder apparently anticipated when he announced in 2013 a sweeping clemency project meant to alleviate sentencing disparities that disproportionately affect blacks.

Crawford’s been behind bars since June 2007 for possession and distribution of crack cocaine.

The commutations, the most Obama has issued at one time, mostly benefit nonviolent drug offenders – many of whom are serving long sentences for cocaine and crack crimes. His prison sentence is commuted to expire on April 16, 2016. Obama has employed his clemency power as a kind of activism against mass incarceration – as of July, he had freed more people from prison than the last four presidents combined.

“I am granting your application because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around”, Obama wrote in a letter he sent to each prisoner.

Lopez was sentenced to 300 months, or 25 years, of imprisonment with 10 years of supervised release. Obama has been pressing forward with sweeping criminal justice reforms in an attempt to relieve the federal prisons of some non-violent drug offenders given harsh sentences during the war on drugs. The broad concept of criminal justice reform has strong bipartisan support in Congress and across the country.