Politics & Government
Obama Commutes Prison Sentences of 2 Chicagoland Drug Dealers
The president says it doesn't make sense for a nonviolent offender to serve 20 years behind bars while commuting 58 sentences nationwide.
President Barack Obama has already commuted the prison sentences of more people than the last six presidents combined, and added to that total Thursday with 58 more commutations of sentences for drug dealers nationwide.
“It just doesn’t make sense to require a nonviolent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison,” Obama said in a statement. “An excessive punishment like that doesn’t fit the crime. It’s not serving taxpayers, and it’s not making us safer."
Two of the commutations have Chicago-area ties, according to the Sun-Times.
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Artez Nyroby Seymour was sentenced to 300 months in prison for distributing crack cocaine in Chicago Heights in 2005. His sentence was reduced to 240 months by a judge last month, but thanks to Obama he will now be released in September.
In 2003, Derrick Terry was also convicted of distributing crack cocaine on the city’s West Side. His 262 month sentence was commuted by Obama Thursday after losing all his appeals.
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Terry will also be released in September.
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