{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-cohen-commends-president-obama-granting-clemency-231", "Congressman Cohen Commends President Obama for Granting Clemency to 231 Americans Serving Unjustly Long Sentences", "2016-12-19", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "TN", "Steve Cohen", "C001068", "cohen.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "[MEMPHIS, TN] \u2013 Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), who has been the most constant voice in Congress imploring President Obama to use his constitutional power to bring about justice through commutations and pardons, today commended President Obama\u2019s decision to commute the prison sentences of 153 largely non-violent drug offenders and issuing 78 pardons. Today\u2019s commutations and pardons represent the President\u2019s continued commitment to using his pardon and commutation powers to right the wrongs of outdated and discriminatory federal policies, and to provide a second chance to deserving individuals. Today\u2019s 231 commutations and pardons marks the most individual acts of clemency granted in a single day by any president in our nation\u2019s history. President Obama has granted clemency to 1,176 prisoners and pardoned 148 people during his presidency.\n\"I commend President Obama for granting a daily record number of commutations and pardons for those serving unjustly long sentences for largely non-violent drug convictions,\u201d said Congressman Cohen. \u201cBut the President should continue working at Mach speed to issue as many appropriate commutations and pardons as possible before leaving office, especially for those in jail for non-violent marijuana convictions and for crack-cocaine disparity injustices. Very, very few of the commutations and pardons issued were for marijuana-related convictions. Yet of all the drugs that prisoners have been jailed for, marijuana is the drug that causes the least harm to society, has contributed to the least number of deaths, and has been legalized medically in 28 states as well as the District of Columbia and recreationally for more than 63 million Americans. Why there haven\u2019t been more commutations and pardons for marijuana convictions befuddles me. Our nation\u2019s outdated federal drug laws disproportionately affect minority populations and continue a policy grounded in false premises and political expediency dating back to President Nixon\u2019s \u2018Southern Strategy.\u2019 As Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly noted, \u2018Justice too long delayed is justice denied.\u2019\u201dCongressman Cohen has repeatedly called on the President to make broader use of his pardon and commutation powers to address injustices, including a November 15, 2016 letter to President Obama, a February 2016 column in the Commercial Appeal calling for increased staffing at the White House Counsel\u2019s Office to review clemency petitions, a\u00a0May 2015 column in the Blue Nation Review\u00a0on the need to bring fairness back to the criminal justice system, a\u00a0November 2014 column that appeared in The Hill,\u00a0repeatedly urging then-Attorney General Holder to address the issue, in\u00a0a\u00a0letter sent to the President in June 2013, in an\u00a0August 2013 speech on Capitol Hill and in\u00a0an\u00a0August 2013 column that appeared in The Nation.\nThe Fair Sentencing Act, which was passed by Congress with Congressman Cohen\u2019s co-sponsorship and signed into law by the President in 2010, marked a turning point in our nation\u2019s approach to drug policy and was a crucial step toward eliminating the dramatic and unfair disparity between crack and powder cocaine mandatory minimum sentences. But, as the President has noted, it \u201ccame too late\u201d for thousands of people who were sentenced before the law was passed and who are still serving sentences imposed under outdated laws. The bipartisan Sentencing Reform Act of 2015, which passed the House Judiciary Committee in November, would, in part, make the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive. Congressman Cohen is a cosponsor of this bill.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://cohen.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-cohen-commends-president-obama-granting-clemency-231"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.466847024857998, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}