奧巴馬赦免八名非暴力毒犯
President BarackObama will shorten the sentences of eight prisoners serving time for nonviolentdrug crimes and pardon 12 ex-convicts, the JusticeDepartment announced Wednesday.
週三，美國司法部宣佈，奧巴馬總統將對八名非暴力毒販刑期進行減免並撤銷12項罪名。
Barbara, center,with her father, daughter Alannah, and grandson. (Courtesy of Barbara Scrivner)
巴巴拉(中，巴巴拉斯克裏夫納)，和她父親，女兒Alannah及孫子。
The act ofpresidential clemency is traditional around Christmastime, but Obama's action is part of his administration's broader push to roll back harsh mandatorydrug sentences that imprisoned people for decades for nonviolent drug "tough on crime" drug laws contributed to America's record of locking up a larger share ofits population than any other nation in the world.
總統赦免的行爲是聖誕期間的一個傳統，但奧巴馬的這個舉動是他這屆政府廣泛推動的了結毒品犯罪量刑過重的一部分，例如一些非暴力毒品販關押長達十多年。對於盤踞入獄人數比例世界最高記錄的美國來說，"嚴厲打擊毒品犯罪法"可謂"功不可沒"。
Recently, judgeshave been given more flexibility around mandatory minimums, and in 2010Congress narrowed the disparity that sent crack dealers to prison for a hundredtimes longer than cocaine dealers. But those who were incarcerated under theold laws remained there, prompting the Justice Department to announce in Aprilthat nonviolent offenders could apply for clemency through a special initiativecalled"Clemency Project 2014." Thousands of prisoners have done so, andan outside group of nonprofit lawyers is currently vetting the applications. Anadministration official said the president will most likely grant morecommutations of this kind as the applications begin to land on the pardonattorney's desk.
最近，對於最低量刑，法官被賦予了較大的靈活性。2010年國會議員達成共識，即對暴力毒販關押期可比可卡因毒品販長一百倍。但對於按之前法規關押的罪犯卻成了兩難問題，聯想起（今年）四月美國司法部宣佈的，非暴力罪犯可通過被稱爲《寬恕計劃2014》的特殊活動，申請給予寬大處理。由此數千囚犯都可以去申請，而且一些非營利律師團體目前正對這種申請進行審覈。一名政府官員表示，總統很有可能批准更多的這類經過律師審覈的減刑申請。Barbara Scrivner,who was serving 30 years for her minor role in her drug-dealer husband's meth ring, is among the eight prisonerswhose sentences were commuted by the president on Wednesday. The subject of aYahoo News feature last April, Scrivner said that two of her previous clemencyapplications were denied by the pardon attorney's office in 2005 and 2011, though even the judge whosentenced her unequivocally supported her petition. Obama and Attorney GeneralEric Holder reformed the pardon attorney's office in April, replacing Ronald Rodgers, who hadbeen criticized for knee-jerk rejections of petitions, with Deborah Leff, an advocacy-mindedattorney, to lead the office. One of the factors Leff may be givingless weight to is remorse in petitions. In the past, prisoners wererequired to show unqualified contrition to get a second lookfrom the pardon attorney.
巴巴拉斯克裏夫納的丈夫曾是個毒品販子，她只因在丈夫毒品銷售鏈中充當了一個小角色就被判了30年，她是總統在週三赦免的八名罪犯當中的一個。在去年四月的雅虎專題新聞中，斯克裏夫納曾表示，她前分別在2005年和2011年兩次遞交的減刑申請都被檢察官駁回了，儘管對他判刑的法官明確表示支持他去申請。奧巴馬和總檢察長埃裏克在四月對赦免代理部門進行了了改革，換掉了羅納德羅傑斯，他和另一位名爲底波拉萊夫的辯護律師，曾被批爲像條件反射似的駁回申請。其中的箇中原因是萊夫可能認爲申請書中沒有真誠悔過。以前曾有規定，囚犯們若是表現的不合格（不真心懺悔），赦免律師根本不會多看一眼。Scrivner's attorney, Sam Kauffman, said his clientcried when he called her to tell her she had received the commutation from thepresident. She still had more than four years of her sentence left to serve.
斯克裏夫納的律師，山姆考夫曼說，當他給他的委託人打電話，告訴他總統已批准減刑時，她哭了。即使她還有四年多的服刑期。"It should have happened a long time ago,but what are you going to do?" Kauffman said.
“這本該很早之前就該發生的事，但你能怎麼辦？”考夫曼說。In April, Scrivnertold Yahoo she wanted to get out of prison to be there for her daughter,Alannah, who was just a toddler when she was sentenced.
斯克裏夫納在四月告訴雅虎，她曾想逃出監獄去看女兒，他的女兒叫阿蘭那，當她被判刑時，女兒纔剛學會走步。"Ten years isa long time to be in prison. And now it's been 20 years," Scrivner said at the time."It just doesn't seem real to me."
“監獄裏的10年太漫長了，眼見快住了20年了” 斯克裏夫納此時說道，“對我來說這太不真實了”The eightprisoners, all of whom have served at least 10 years, will be released in June.
這八名囚犯都至少服了10年刑期，將在6月獲釋。"While all eight were properly heldaccountable for their criminal actions, their punishments did not fit theircrimes, and sentencing laws and policies have since been updated to ensure morefairness for low-level offenders," Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole said in a statement.
“對於他們的犯罪行爲，這八名罪犯都已全部承擔了責任，對於他們的罪行處罰不適，爲確保對低級別犯罪罪犯更公平，量刑法律和法規此後將會進行修正”副檢察長，吉姆-科爾在一份聲明中說到。
