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metro » o n the cover

Fighting
For Justice

Attorney Alona Sharon helps non-violent
drug offender win clemency.

Louis Finkelman | Contributing Writer

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12 December 1 • 2016

O

n Aug. 3, 2016, President
Barack Obama sent a letter
to Samuel Grooms of Clinton
Township, an inmate at Marion Federal
Penitentiary in Illinois, announcing
presidential clemency.
Grooms, who had already served
more than 13 years of a life sentence,
can now expect to be released in the
next three years due to a combination of
actual time he served, good time credit
he’s accrued and the fact that federal
prisoners usually transition out at 85
percent of their sentences.
The president’s letter states, in part:
“The power to grant pardons and
clemency is one of the most profound
authorities granted the president of the
United States. It 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 concludes his letter: “I believe
in your ability to prove the doubters
wrong and change your life for the bet-
ter. So good luck, and Godspeed.”
The president has accelerated grants
of clemency in recent months. As of
Oct. 27, Obama had used his power of
clemency to grant 872 prisoners short-
ened sentences. He intends to consider
requests for clemency from all prisoners
convicted of non-violent drug offenses
before his term concludes in January,
according to the Justice Department;
experts estimate this group includes
about 1,500 prisoners nationwide.
Local attorney Alona Sharon had filed
the paperwork on behalf of Grooms to
bring the case to the president’s atten-
tion.
Grooms began serving a life sentence
for a non-violent drug offense because,
in 1994, Congress legislated manda-
tory enhanced sentences. Prosecutors
could negotiate plea bargains for shorter
sentences but, if the case went to trial,

judges had no discretion: A third-time
offender would get life in prison without
the opportunity for parole.
So when a young woman picked
up her suitcase at Detroit airport and
officers found 4 kilograms of heroin in
it, she pleaded guilty and received a sen-
tence of two years in prison plus three
years’ probation; the man who came
to pick up the suitcase pleaded guilty
and received a sentence of only proba-
tion; the man who repeatedly called
to inquire about the delivery, Samuel
Grooms, who had prior convictions,
went to trial and received a sentence of
life imprisonment without the possibil-
ity of parole.
The judge, Bernard A. Friedman, as
he issued Grooms’ sentence, remarked,
“I feel bad. I mean, I really do, but I
think I have no choice in the matter …
I just want this record to clearly reflect
that if I had a choice, it would not be
life, that’s for sure.”
And then, in August 2013, U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder issued
guidelines instructing prosecutors not
to seek enhanced sentences for low-level
drug dealers who have not committed
violent offenses. Holder particularly
wished to avoid widely disparate sen-
tences for individuals convicted of equal
participation in the same offense.
The Holder guidelines would lessen
penalties for future convicts, but many
federal prisoners — among them
Grooms — had already received the
enhanced sentence of mandatory life
imprisonment. U.S. Deputy Attorney
General James Cole called for the legal
community to help find these prisoners
and to file papers requesting presidential
commutations for them.
Clemency Project 2014, founded in
response to Cole’s request, recruited vol-
unteer attorneys to help these prisoners
for no payment.
When Alona Sharon volunteered with

