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"Judge urges Obama to cut coke dealer's sentence"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this effective new piece by Josh Gerstein now up at Politico.  Here is how it starts: A federal judge is calling attention to President Obama's uncertain stance on executive clemency by making a rare judicial plea for a presidential commutation of a drug convict. In an opinion issued Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman urged President Barack Obama to reduce the 27-year sentence Friedman imposed on Byron McDade back in 2002 after a jury found him guilty of conspiring to distribute more than five kilos of cocaine. "Twenty-seven years is a very long time," Friedman wrote. "None of Mr. McDade's former co-defendants or co-conspirators received more than a seven-and-one-half year sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 07, 2009 (boomark / email).