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Obama Set A Record Commuting 1,716 Jail Sentences

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Henry Rodgers Chief National Correspondent
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Former President Barack Obama broke the record for commuting sentences during his tenure, cutting the jail times of more than 1,000 indicted criminals.

A U.S. Sentencing Commission report released Monday showed that Obama handed out 1,928 grants of clemency during his presidency. “Of them, 1,716 were commutations of sentence, more commutations than any other president has granted,” the report noted.

The Commission also listed several other key findings in its report:

  • President Obama made 1,928 grants of clemency during his presidency. Of them, 1,716 were commutations of sentence, more commutations than any other President has granted.
  • Of the 1,928 grants of clemency that President Obama made, 1,696 were sentence commutations under the 2014 Clemency Initiative.
  • The commutations in sentence granted through the Clemency Initiative resulted in an average sentence reduction of 39.0 percent, or approximately 140 months.
  • Of the 1,696 offenders who received a commuted sentence under the Clemency Initiative, 86 (5.1%) met all the announced Clemency Initiative factors for consideration.
  • On April 24, 2014, there were 1,025 drug trafficking offenders incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons who appeared to meet all the announced Clemency Initiative factors. Of them, 54 (5.3%) received clemency from President Obama.
  • By January 19, 2017, there were 2,687 drug trafficking offenders who had been incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons when the Clemency Initiative was announced and who appeared to meet all the announced Clemency Initiative factors. Of them, 92 (3.4%) received clemency from President Obama.

Obama also commuted the sentences of 657 cocaine dealers, a Daily Caller analysis revealed in December 2016.

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