{"id":9346,"date":"2018-06-27T02:27:08","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T07:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.candoclemency.com\/?p=9346"},"modified":"2022-08-19T12:53:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T17:53:57","slug":"yahoo-news-focuses-on-3-can-do-clemency-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheryanne.com\/cando-new2\/yahoo-news-focuses-on-3-can-do-clemency-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Yahoo News focuses on 3 CAN-DO clemency candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother serving life in prison for drug trafficking, was granted clemency by President Trump on June 6, a phone call went out from the White House counsel\u2019s office \u2014 the administration wanted more people like her.<\/p>\n

On the receiving end was Mark Holden<\/a>, general counsel and senior vice president at Koch Industries, who has advocated for prison reform. He reached out to Amy Povah, the founder of CAN-DO, a nonprofit organization that advocates for prisoners, and took her names, along with lists from other organizations, to the White House.<\/p>\n

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Holden met separately with White House counsel Don McGahn and Jared Kushner on June 8. Holden received the impression they will look at additional cases of possible injustice<\/a> involving convictions for nonviolent crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, [Trump\u2019s] really interested in the issue, just like he has been with prison reform,\u201d Holden said. \u201cHe sees it as a way to deal with injustice and help people improve their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has said <\/a>he has \u201c3,000 names\u201d he is considering for clemency. Povah said she\u2019s not sure where the president got that number, but she knows her names have gone straight to McGahn.<\/p>\n

Among those names is Tanesha Bannister<\/a>, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 after being convicted of conspiracy to sell crack cocaine. She was resentenced after appealing the decision and received 23 years in 2008.<\/p>\n

Read the full story:<\/a><\/p>\n

In January, Holden attended a meeting in the White House attended by Trump, Sessions, Kushner and other activists about prison reform and said the president was open to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really resonated with the president in that meeting was when someone told him that the people who will benefit from prison reform,\u201d he said, \u201cthese are the forgotten men and women, the voiceless men and women that you campaigned for and their families and them, are the ones who elected you, and they\u2019re the ones that need help.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a formal process for getting a clemency petition to the president\u2019s desk. It first must be approved by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, under the guidance of the deputy attorney general. If the request meets their approval, the OPA will provide a recommendation for the president. Afterward, it is sent to the office of the counsel to the president. The president will then either accept or deny it.<\/p>\n

But Trump doesn\u2019t seem interested in the formal route. Johnson, who was serving a life sentence for a first-time drug conviction, was granted clemency after Kim Kardashian intervened with Trump on her behalf. Author Dinesh D\u2019Souza was pardoned for election-law violations after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz asked the president to consider it. The late boxer Jack Johnson was given a posthumous pardon for a sexual offense (prosecuted under the racist judicial system of the early 20th century) on the recommendation of actor Sylvester Stallone.<\/p>\n

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted of violating a court order against racial profiling by his office, was pardoned by Trump on his own initiative. Arpaio is now running for the Senate.<\/p>\n

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Alice Marie Johnson, left, with her daughter Katina Marie Scales on June 7, the day after she was released from prison. (Photo: Adrian Sainz\/AP).<\/span>” data-reactid=”79″><\/p>\n
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