Article by: Adam Serwer
Clarence Aaron, a non-violent drug offender sentenced to three life terms when he was 24 years old, will finally be freed after twenty years behind bars.
Along with seven other people serving time for non-violent drug offenses, President Obama commuted Aaron’s sentence on Thursday, after a two-decade long imprisonment that might have ended sooner if not for a federal official mismanaging his case.
Aaron has been imprisoned since 1993 for his role in a crack cocaine deal. Though it was his first offense, and he was not the drug dealer, supplier or buyer, Aaron, who was 24 at the time, received a harsher sentence than anyone convicted in connection with the case. All eight individuals granted clemency were sentenced under drug laws the penalized crack cocaine offenses 100 times harsher than powder cocaine offenses. That disparity was narrowed in 2010, when Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the ratio of crack to powder sentences to 18 to 1 instead of 100 to 1. All of the individuals granted clemency Thursday have served more than fifteen years in prison, according to the White House.
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