WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday commuted the sentence of a 72-year-old, disabled Little Rock man imprisoned for drug offenses.
Kenneth Isaacs, now serving a 15-year sentence in Springfield, Mo., was originally supposed to serve until May 19, 2018. With the commutation, he becomes a free man on July 28.
Isaacs is one of 61 people with drug-related convictions who received commutations from the White House this week.
The Justice Department had consulted with U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer, and the Little Rock-based federal prosecutor last year had recommended granting the commutation.
"[He's] 72. He's in a wheelchair. The Bureau of Prisons projects that he has a relatively short time left to live due to him being in end-stage emphysema, so our office really believed this was a humane commutation," said Chris Givens, a spokesman and assistant U.S. attorney.
Isaacs is currently a resident of the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners.
Obama is sending a letter to Isaacs and each of the other offenders, telling them that "the power to grant pardons and commutations ... embodies the basic belief in our democracy that people deserve a second chance after having made a mistake in their lives that led to a conviction under our laws."
Obama met Wednesday with previous commutation recipients to hear about their re-entry into society and to discuss ways to improve the system.
Today, the White House holds a forum titled Life After Clemency that will focus on many of the same issues.
The president is also calling for Congress to pass legislation overhauling the criminal justice system. Some lawmakers want to reduce sentences for certain nonviolent offenses and make other changes.
Obama's authority to grant commutations comes from Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which states: "The President ... shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."
Since taking office, Obama has granted 248 commutations, the White House said. The current federal inmate population is 196,144, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The number of federal inmates has grown rapidly over the past 35 years. From a population of 24,640 in 1980, the numbers peaked at 219,298 in 2013.
Many of the criminals, including Isaacs, were convicted of drug offenses.
Indicted in 2002, Isaacs was arrested in March 2003 and pleaded guilty in September 2003 to "conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute hydromorphone," a powerful opioid pain medication.
It was the third strike for Isaacs, who had already been convicted on federal drug and escape charges. He was classified as a career offender and given an enhanced penalty.
With the escape conviction automatically classified as a crime of violence, the sentence handed down was stiff enough to surprise the criminal defendant -- and the prosecutors.
"The United States is not unsympathetic to [Isaacs'] situation as he was sentenced to a longer term of imprisonment than the parties anticipated once it was determined that Isaacs was a career offender," the U.S. attorney's office stated in an August 2010 filing, months before Thyer's appointment.
Isaacs, in poor health for some time, crafted legal appeals for years, begging federal judges to set him free ahead of schedule.
In a 2009 "motion to vacate, set aside or correct sentence," he wrote that he wanted to "be able to look forward to leaving Federal Prison alive. With my diminished Health it is slim to bleak that I will live till my release date, and I know it was not the intent of the U.S. [or] the Court for me to die in federal prison."
In the motion, he said his 1994 escape had been from a halfway house and that no one had been harmed when he failed to return after receiving a furlough. "I used no weapon, damaged no property, I got freedom in my veins and failed to return."
While on furlough, Isaacs was busted for selling drugs by an undercover law enforcement officer, according to court records; once released, he didn't return to the halfway house.
During his latest incarceration, Isaacs "has been as productive as possible," he wrote in a June 16, 2009, motion to reduce his sentence.
One day later, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright issued a one-page order denying Isaacs' request, explaining that Isaacs was not entitled to early release under existing federal law.
Unable to obtain judicial relief, Isaacs' fate rested with the executive branch.
Ultimately, Isaacs' deliverance would come from Washington and the White House with the support of federal prosecutors in Arkansas.
Given Isaac's age and health problems, "we don't believe that he's a risk to the community or that he's likely to re-offend," said Givens, the assistant U.S. attorney.
Metro on 03/31/2016