Ricardo Hernandez
AP Government Mod 5
March, 31, 2016
Unit 4 President

President Obama grants early release to 61 more federal drug offenders

This blog post is about justice being served for 61 Federal drug offenders! The POTUS has given clemency to 61 Federal drug offenders on Wednesday for their release. In total President Obama has granted clemency to 248 inmates in which over a third were serving life sentences for non-violent drug offense. Although there 61 inmates were given clemency, there are still 9,115 clemency petitions that are waiting to be heard from. His release of prisoners is an ongoing effort of his high-profile clemency initiative. To qualify, prisoners had to have served at least 10 years of their sentence and have no significant criminal history and no connection to gangs, cartels or organized crime. They also must have good conduct while in prison.

I believe that the president is doing a good job rewarding clemency and pardoning the sentences of many prisoners that deserve a second chance. I researched a bit more and found out that the President has pardoned more people than the past 6 presidents. Which is a great use of his inherent powers being the chief executive. This ties into what we are learning in class because as of now we are learning about the roles and powers of the president. Such as whether they are implied or inherent.