Freeing People Who Don’t Belong in Prison Is Praiseworthy, No Matter Trump’s Motives

On his way out the door this morning, President Donald Trump approved 143 clemency petitions, including commutations for dozens of nonviolent offenders, most of whom were convicted of violating federal drug laws. The recipients include at least 10 people who received life sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Among them: Michael Pelletier, who went to prison in 2007 for importing marijuana; Craig Cesal, a first-time offender who was imprisoned in 2003 for repairing trucks that were used to distribute marijuana; and Darrell Frazier, who was sentenced in 1991 for his role in a cocaine trafficking operation.

Trump’s final batch of pardons and commutations, like the previous rounds, is apt to be criticized on the grounds that he chose most of the recipients for personal or political reasons. After Trump announced 46 pardons and commutations before Christmas, Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith reported that 85 of the 94 clemency recipients up to that point had “a personal or political connection to Trump.” The New York Times says Trump has “made clear his willingness to use his clemency power on behalf of allies, supporters, people he perceives as victims of prosecutorial overreach and people who forge connections to him and his team.” Leaving aside Trump’s blatantly self-interested mercy for cronies such as Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and Steve Bannon (who was pardoned today), I think this sort of criticism is misplaced for several reasons.

First, the focus on Trump’s motivation obscures the crucial question of whether the recipients of commutations received sentences that were grossly disproportionate in light of the conduct that sent them to prison. Whether Lavonne Roach deserved 30 years behind bars for participating in her boyfriend’s methamphetamine operation, for example, has nothing to do with how she came to the president’s attention or why he decided to commute her sentence. “I am grateful to President Trump, Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump for their understanding that even in these last moments, how important it was to still use the executive power to bring people home,” Topeka K. Sam, executive director of The Ladies of Hope Ministries, said in a press release. “When you look at a woman like Lavonne Roach—who, after 23 years of incarceration, is now reunited with her children—that’s nothing short of a miracle for a mothe