A Federal Prisoner Had his Life Sentence Commuted

choi

Dan Berry, Inmate Serving Life Had One Final Hope. (Spoiler: It Came Through.)  Two years after an appeal to President Obama, a commutation. New York Times, Apr 4, 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/0 ... resident-obama.html

Quote:

"Mr [Jesse] Webster * * * was one of 61 federal inmates, serving time for drug-related crimes, whose sentences were commuted by President Obama on Wednesday [Mar 30, 2016].

"Mr Webster, now 48 * * * [had been] a freelance cocaine dealer * * * Mr Webster spent 16 years in maximum-security prisons, including Leavenworth, before earning a transfer to Greenville, a medium-security prison, in 2011 [so altogether he has served 22 years].

"In early 2013, his lawyer * * * sent documents related to his case to the Office of the Pardon Attorney of the Justice Department. The packet included various letters appealing for clemency, as well as a letter from Mr Webster addressed to Mr Obama himself, which said in part that the president was his 'final hope.'

Note:
(a) "at the Greenville federal prison in Southern Illinois. An inmate named Jesse Webster, serving a life sentence without parole for a nonviolent first offense"

Federal Correctional Institution, Greenville
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Correctional_Institution,_Greenville
(for men; Location  Greenville, Illinois -- approximately 43 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri, and 63 miles from Springfield, Illinois)
(b) United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Penitentiary,_Leavenworth
(USP Leavenworth; is a medium-security United States federal prison for man; Location  Leavenworth, Kansas [Colonel Henry Leavenworth established Fort Leavenworth in 1827, from which City of Leavenworth was founded in 1854])
(c) Office of the Pardon Attorney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_the_Pardon_Attorney
(d) For persons convicted after November 1, 1987, federal parole has been abolished (by Congress).