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PACJE5A
ForsythOpinion
Wednesday, May 30,2012
Will Obama
ignore pleas?
As a candidate for presi¬
dent in 2008, Barack
Obama pledged to "imme
diately" review federal
mandatory minimum sen¬
tences "to see where we
can he smarter on crime
and reduce the ineffective
warehousing of nonviolent
drug offenders - ’ Obama
also had written memoirs,
in which he admitted to
using marijuana and
cocaine “maybe a little
blow when y ou could
afford if" - as a teen. And
Ik's the first black presi
dent.
Linda Aaron, a black
Alabama grandmother,
voted for Obama For
years, Aaron had been hop¬
ing that President George
W. Bush would commute
the obscenely long prison
sentence of her son,
Clarence. Because of
Draconian federal manda¬
tory minimum sentencing,
a federal judge sentenced
Aaron w hen he w as 24 to
three sentences of life with¬
out parole for a first-time
nonviolent drug offense.
Linda Aaron fully expect¬
ed that if Bush didn't use his
presidential pardon power to
commute her son s sentence
— and Bush did not —
Obama would do so It still
hasn't happened Clarence
Aaron is 43.
The candidate who
pledged to look at sentence
reductions few nonviolent
drug offenders became the
president who. after reject¬
ing nearly 3,800 requests,
has commuted one sen¬
tence while in office.
This column is not sim¬
ply about Clarence Aaron.
It is about a justice system
that cannot correct itself
w hen it knows that it has
gone overboard.
Aaron broke the law in
1992, w hen he connected
cocaine dealers for two
large drug deals. He
deserv ed to go to prison.
But what country puts first
lime nonviolent 20- some¬
things behind bars for the
rest of their natural lives?
There is nothing just
about a system that metes
out shorter prison time to
co-defendants who are drug
dealers (all but one of
whom are now free in this
case), than to a college stu¬
dent with no criminal
record.
I’ve heard the arguments
as to why Aaron doesn't
deserve a pardon Drug
deals arc inherently v iolent.
In refusing to plead guilty,
Aaron refused to accept
responsibility for his crimi¬
nal actions (That’s true.,
and because Aaron lied on
the stand, the judge length¬
ened Aaron's sentence.)
If you believe those argu¬
ments. as some people of
g<xxl faith do. you still have
to acknowledge that the
system punished Aaron
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a
DEBRA SAUNDERS
Columnist
iiK>re for not pleading
guilty and lying on the
stand than it did for his
brief role in the drug busi¬
ness.
There is no sense of pro¬
portion here. Aaron is serv ¬
ing live same sentence as
Robert Hanssen, the FBI
agent turned traitor.
In 20W. the U S.
Department of Justice par¬
don attorney recommended
that the president not com¬
mute Aaron’s sentence.
ProPubbca recently report¬
ed that in a push for more
favorable recommenda¬
tions, the Bush White
House had asked the Office
of the Pardon Attorney to
reconsider Aaron's applica¬
tion
Unfortunately for Aaron,
current pardon attorney
Ronald Rodgers passed
along his predecessor’s rec¬
ommendation that Aaron’s
petition be denied. Rodgers
failed to disclose that the
U S. attorney‘s office had
reversed its position so that
it supported a presidential
commutation from life
without parole to 25 y ears
— so that Aaron would be
released in 2014 Samuel
Morison, w ho used to work
in the pardon attorney \
office, believes that
Rodgers ill-served Bush,
who would have commuted
the sentence if his pardtxi
attorney h.id passed on case
facts.
On Thursday. Families
Against Mandatory
Minimum* held an event to
urge the Senate Judiciary
Committee to investigate
the pardon attorney 's office
in light of Rodgers' failure
to pass cm that key bit of
news Linda Aaron spoke at
the event Over the phone,
she told me she is “puz¬
zled" over Obama's failure
to commute her son’s sen¬
tence.
By any objective mea¬
sure. Aaron’s life w ithout
pan tic is a cruel anomaly
I’ve been writing about his
case for more than a decade
because the criminal justice
system won’t accept
responsibility and correct
its pernicious excesses.
Normally when some¬
thing's broken, people who
care for it fix it But not the
justice system.
Obama was supposed to
bnng sanity to a federal
sentencing structure that
over-punishes nonviolent
drug offenders But 1 guess
he ’s just too busy to get to
Clarence Aaron.
Debra Saunders is a nationally
syndicated columnist
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Kirk Witten The Toledo Blade
Voters happy or ignorant?
The General Assembly will
have a familiar look when law¬
makers convene for the 2013 ses¬
sion. judging from the results of
candidate qualifying last week
In the House of
Representatives, 62 Republican
incumbents made it through
qualifying without drawing
opposition in cither the GOP pri¬
mary or the general election.
Another 16 GOP incumbents
have minimal opposition and are
virtually assured of w inning
another term, for a total of 78
safe incumbents.
There are 25 Democratic
incumbents in the House who
are unopposed and at least four
more who have light opposition,
so 29 members of the minority
caucus can start planning for
another two years at the Gold
Dome.
In the Senate. 24 Republican
incumbents are unopposed while
four more incumbents have
token opposition and most likely
will be back next year There arc
10 Democratic incumbents who
are unopposed and three more
with light opposition.
Overall, you can safely assume
that at least 148 of the current
236 legislators will be returning
for another term before a single
vote has been cast in any elec¬
tion this year.
That tells me that most
Georgians arc cither satisfied
with the way their legislators are
representing them, or they aren't
interested enough to pay atten¬
tion to w hat's happening at the
capitol
There will still be a few legis¬
lative elections that should be
worth watching as the campaigns
get under way.
Even w ith all the safe incum¬
bents. a couple of members of
the Senate's Republican leader¬
ship team will actually be forced
to campaign to retain their legis¬
lative scats
Senate Majority Leader Chip
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This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
31
TOM CRAWFORD
Columnist
Rogers is being challenged in
the GOP primary by Brandon
Beach, a member of the State
Transportation Board. Sen. Cecil
Staton. R-Macon. the majority
whip, also has a primary oppo¬
nent in Thomaston physician
Spencer Price.
Sen. Don Balfour,
R-Snellville, chairman of the
powerful Senate Rules
Committee, is a rare incumbent
who may have to contend with
challengers in both the primary
and the general election.
Balfour has been targeted by
ethics reform advocates because
of pending complaints against
him — involving state reim¬
bursement on official expenses
— that were filed w ith the
Senate Ethics Committee.
“There were some minor mis¬
takes and 1 reimbursed the state
for those mistakes,” Balfour
acknowledged after he qualified
last week.
Balfour has GOP primary
opposition from Travis Bowden
of Snellville and Steve Ramey of
Lilbum. Lawrenceville attorney
Scott Drake qualified to run as a
Democrat in that district.
Sen. Bill Heath. R-Bremen,
chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, will be facing a
strong primary challenge from
Bill Carruth. former chairman of
the Paulding County
Commission and a member of
the state Board of Natural
Resources.
Sen. Jack Murphy,
R-Cumming. who remained the
chairman of the Senate Banking
Committee after getting sued by
the FDIC for actions he took as
a director of a now defunct
bank, has opposition in his
Republican primary from Steve
Voshall. a Cumming insurance
agent.
Some familiar figures will be
trying to make a political come¬
back by running for seats in the
Genera) Assembly.
Jeff Chapman, who served six
years in the state Senate before
running unsuccessfully for gov¬
ernor in 2010, qualified to run
for the House seat along the
coast that Roger Lane gave up to
accept a judgeship appointment.
Vernon Jones was a member of
the Georgia House in the 1990s
before he was elected to the first
of two terms as DeKalb
County’s chief executive officer
in 2000. Jones is running as a
Democrat for an open seat in
House District 94 against four
other Democratic candidates.
Thomaston attorney Johnnie
L. Caldwell Jr. is running in
House District 131 against
Republican Ryan Christopher of
Bamesville. Caldwell was a
Superior Court judge before he
resigned in 2010 in the wake of
allegations that he sexually
harassed a female attorney.
David Lucas, who served in
the Georgia House for 37 years,
is back for another campaign
against Sen. Miriam Paris,
D-Macon. Lucas resigned from
the House last year to run for the
Senate in a special election but
was defeated by Paris.
Those could all be interesting
elections, but there won't be
enough of them. Once again,
we’re letting too many elected
officials coast to another term
without having to answer for
what they’ve done
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia
Report, an internet news service at
gareport.com that reports on govern¬
ment and politics in Georgia He can
be reached at tcrawford@gareport.
com.