By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
In what the White House called a decisive move echoing the core tenet of equal justice under law, President Joe Biden announced a set of substantial clemency actions aimed at addressing glaring disparities within the U.S. criminal justice system. The president, underscoring bipartisan consensus on the need for a fair and unbiased legal framework, declared a series of important measures toward realizing the promise of equal justice in American communities.
“I am announcing additional steps I am taking to make the promise of equal justice a reality,” Biden declared, emphasizing that equal justice is a “foundational principle on which America was built.”
The first measure involves commuting sentences for 11 individuals serving extended terms for non-violent drug offenses. Among the notable cases receiving commutations are Darryl Allen Winkfield of Augusta, Ga., Leroy Lymons of Pensacola, Fla., and Earlie Deacon Barber of Dothan, Ala., each of whom was sentenced to life in prison. Winkfield was convicted in 1998 of conspiracy to distribute and to possess cocaine. Biden commuted the sentence, leaving intact a 10-year probation when Winkfield is released in April 2024.
In 2012, Lymons was sentenced to life for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine. The commutation clears Lymons for release after 27 years. In 2009, Barber was sentenced in Alabama for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms of a mixture and substance containing cocaine base. He will now be released in April 2024, with a remaining 10 years of supervised probation.
In the president’s words, these individuals “would have been eligible for reduced sentences” under current standards. He said the move underscores his administration’s commitment to rectifying outdated and unjust sentencing practices.
Drawing attention to the crack-to-powder sentencing disparity, Biden noted that he supports initiatives to eliminate the sentencing difference, asserting that it “does not advance public safety.” He said the move aligns with his broader push for criminal justice reform.
“I have exercised my clemency power more than any recent predecessor has at this point in their presidency,” Biden stated. “And while today’s announcement marks important progress, my administration will continue to review clemency petitions and deliver reforms that advance equal justice, address racial disparities, strengthen public safety, and enhance the well being of all Americans.”
The White House insisted that law enforcement and experts now recognize that the crack-to-powder sentencing disparity is not supported by science, does not advance public safety, and disproportionately impacts Black communities.
Administration officials said Attorney General Merrick Garland has also expressed support for eliminating the crack-to-powder sentencing disparity and has directed federal prosecutors to promote the equivalent treatment of crack and powder cocaine offenses.
“As the president proposed as a senator in 2007, a fair criminal justice system requires that Congress end, once and for all, this unjust and racially discriminatory sentencing disparity,” the White House said in a statement. “And Congress must make these changes fully retroactive.” Building on his previous pardon of simple possession offenses, Biden added, “It’s time that we right these wrongs.”
The move extends to marijuana offenses committed on certain federal lands, encapsulating a comprehensive approach to marijuana reform, to which the president also signed a proclamation to pardon additional offenses related to the use and possession of marijuana under federal and D.C. law. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs,” Biden insisted.
“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the use or possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either. That’s why I continue to urge governors to do the same with regard to state offenses and applaud those who have since taken action.”
Tag: Ala.
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Newswire : Alabama plan advances to alter name of Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
Large crowd crosses bridge in Selma at 57th anniversary
of ‘Bloody Sunday on March 6, 2022;
A state trooper swings a club at John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as police break up a voting rights march in Selma, Ala., on March 7, 1965. AP By Associated Press
Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday advanced legislation that would alter the name of Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge to honor those who were beaten on the bridge as they marched for civil rights in 1965.
The Alabama Senate voted 23-3 for legislation that would change the official name to the “Edmund W. Pettus-Foot Soldiers Bridge.” However, the lettering on the famous bridge would remain unaltered. The name “Foot Soldiers” would be on a separate sign that would include a silhouette of the marchers.
The bill, dubbed the “Healing History Act,” now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives with three meeting days remaining in the legislative session.
The bridge in 1940 was named after Pettus, a Confederate general and reputed Ku Klux Klan leader. However, 25 years later it became an enduring symbol of the civil rights movement after marchers were beaten by law enforcement officers on the bridge in 1965. The melee became known as Bloody Sunday and helped lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Not a single letter would be touched. It would stay intact in its historical context. And at the same time… honor the history that is there and the history that came out of it,” said state Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier, a Democrat from Selma. Sanders-Fortier is running to be the Democratic candidate for Governor of Alabama in the May 24 primary.
Through the years some have proposed changing the name of the bridge, including a push to name it for the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who grew up in Troy, Alabama. The Georgia congressman was one of the demonstrators beaten on the bridge in 1965.
A state trooper swings a club at John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as police break up a voting rights march in Selma, Ala., on March 7, 1965. AP
Sanders-Fortier said many who marched for civil rights in her community do not want the bridge name changed entirely because of what the bridge has come to represent.
State Sen. Gerald Allen, the author of a state law forbidding the removal and renaming of longstanding monuments and memorials, voted against the name alteration. The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, was approved as some cities began taking down Confederate monuments and emblems.
Allen said the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge is famous across the world.
“If you add to it, you change it,” Allen said.
The bill also would steer funds to provide for the commissioning and protection of new monuments and the preservation of sites that have significance to Alabama history.
Sanders-Fortier said it is important to honor all of the state’s history and “to heal from our past so we can move forward as a state.”
“Many of the events in our state’s history have been traumatizing, been traumatizing to African-American folk to Indigenous folk to white folk,” she said, adding that healing means considering the “hurt of each group.” -
Newswire : Progressive Randall Woodfin wins Birmingham, Ala., mayoral race in a major upset
By Terrell Jermaine Starr, The Root
Randall WoodfinProgressive Democratic candidate Randall Woodfin, 36, became the youngest mayor-elect of Birmingham, Ala., in modern history Monday night after defeating two-term incumbent Mayor William Bell with a near 20-point margin of victory. He follows in the footsteps of Jackson, Miss., Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, another Southern progressive supported by national liberal organizations who won city hall this year.
Woodfin’s win is a strategic victory for the progressive movement in that it challenges conservatives locally on their home turf, where state laws such as voter-ID and anti-LGBTQ legislation often have federal election implications.
Our Revolution, a national organization devoted to supporting progressive candidates at the local level, backed Woodfin’s race by sending over 11,000 “Get Out the Vote” text messages and making hundreds of calls. Former Ohio state senator and Our Revolution President Nina Turner campaigned for Woodfin in Alabama twice. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also endorsed his candidacy.
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Woodfin got a lot of campaign help from Morehouse College alumni, who held fundraisers around the country and came from out of town to knock on doors as volunteers. On the scene when the race was called for Woodfin last night was Morehouse’s interim president, Harold Martin Jr. When they were classmates at Morehouse, Martin said, Woodfin made it clear that he was going back to Birmingham to serve his city. His youth, Martin believes, will be to his advantage.
“He is a young mayor,” said Martin, who graduated from Morehouse just two years ahead of Woodfin. “But what we’re experiencing in our country and we’re seeing in the city of Birmingham is that young leaders have great ideas, the energy to see them through, and are innovative in their thinking, and Randall is a prime example of that.”
Considered a long-shot candidate when he jumped into the mayoral race a year ago, Woodfin shocked Birmingham’s political elites when he came in first over Bell in the city’s nonpartisan primary in August. Billing himself as a fresh alternative to Bell, Woodfin vowed to take on the city’s rising crime rates and create ways for young people to pursue a free education at local community colleges. His campaign succeeded in casting Bell’s administration as being too entrenched in the old politics of Birmingham to come up with new ideas on how to move the city forward. (Indeed, Bell has been in city government for as long as Woodfin has been alive.)
Woodfin said that his first agenda items will deal with job creation and tackling poverty. Just as important is the issue of safety. He gained the support of the local police union after promising to hire more cops, but Bell said that his safety plan will include players other than those from law enforcement.
“It’s empowering people where they live,” he said. “It’s taking a 21st-century look at how Neighborhood Watch looks. It’s introducing conflict resolution to our boys and girls entering middle school. It’s finding a way to get our young people to understand what empathy means in childhood before they’re adults. It also means tackling poverty head-on and asking young boys to put guns down and stand ready to replace it with a job in their hands.”
One of Woodfin’s goals is to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Right now it is $7.25. Birmingham’s City Council tried to raise it to $10.10, but the state rejected it.
Woodfin takes office Nov. 28, so he doesn’t have a lot of time to celebrate his win. He said that he will take a long nap today and respond to a few emails and texts. After that, he’s heading straight to City Hall to begin his plans for Birmingham. “I need to have a conversation with the City Council,” he said. “It’s time to get to work, brotha.”