After spending more than three decades in prison, Kofi Modibo Ajabu believed he had exhausted all legal avenues to reduce his 240-year sentence. Ajabu was a college student when he was convicted along with two other men in the March 1994 stabbing deaths of two Indiana teenagers and one of their friends in what prosecutors […]
clemency
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics & Policy
Calls to Free George Floyd’s Murderer Grow. This Is Why It’s Unlikely to Happen
As calls for a pardon for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin are growing in right-wing circles, the real question: is it even possible? The short answer: not quite. Since March, right-wing conservatives have been calling for President Donald Trump to extend clemency for Chauvin’s convictions related to the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Less […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
What a ‘Pardon Czar’ Could Accomplish During a Trump Administration
Newly appointed “pardon czar” Alice Marie Johnson’s role has been met with cautious optimism from decarceration advocates, given President Donald Trump’s unpredictable stance on criminal justice reform. Johnson, a prominent figure in efforts to reform federal mandatory minimum sentences, will advise Trump on clemency decisions, multiple media outlets have reported. “I am deeply grateful for […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration, Politics & Policy
Despite Pardons, Many Formerly Incarcerated Black People Still Face Uncertainty
Michelle West waited 32 years. Convicted in 1994 of nonviolent drug offenses, she was ordered to federal prison for two life sentences, plus an additional 50 years. On Sunday, former President Joe Biden commuted her sentence, meaning she will walk away from a low-security correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, this week as a free woman. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
What the Road to Redemption Looks Like for Incarcerated People
A weekend visit to family on Long Island, New York, turned into Kenneth Hogan’s last days of freedom. At 20 years old, Hogan was a father of two and his mother’s main support system. Hogan says he sold drugs in Albany, New York, to financially survive and yet he aspired to break his family’s generational […]