Obama Should Pardon Clarence Aaron: Debra J. Saunders

[The Straight Story]

Obama Should Pardon Clarence Aaron: Debra J. Saunders

A victim of the criminal justice system’s draconian punishment for first-time drug offenders, Clarence Aaron deserves to be pardoned by President Barack Obama, argues conservative columnist Debra J. Saunders.

Aaron was a college student at Southern University in 1992 when he made the mistake of arranging a meeting between a classmate and a childhood friend who worked for a big-time Alabama drug dealer. Aaron, who needed money, was at the meeting where $200,000 was exchanged between his friend and his classmate’s brother for the purchase of 20 pounds of cocaine. Aaron’s take was $1,500, but his punishment was a lot worse.

After the police arrested those involved in the drug deal, Aaron was sentenced to life without parole, even though he had a clean record prior to his conviction. Most of the others are now out of prison, some having cut deals to reduce their sentences.

“Aaron’s biggest crime, it turns out, was not conspiracy to distribute cocaine,” writes Saunders. “He could have been a big dealer, snitched on the career criminals and been free by now. But because he was a college kid unfamiliar with the courts, Clarence Aaron did not know how to game the system.”

http://www.allgov.com/Opinion_from_the_Right/ViewNews/Obama_Should_Pardon_Clarence_Aaron__Debra_J_Saunders_101114