President commutes 22-year prison term of Illinois mother

BY FREDERICK COSBY
BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM

After a decade behind bars, Eugenia Maria Jennings is expected to be home for Christmas.

Eugenia Jennings

Late last month, Jennings, a 34-year-old mother of three from Alton, Ill., was the beneficiary of President Barack Obama’s first prison sentence commutation. He ordered that Jennings’ 22-year sentence for possession with intent to distribute 13.9 grams of crack cocaine expire on Dec. 21.

Obama’s action was hailed by opponents of mandatory minimum prison sentencing and those who are seeking to end the disparity in sentencing for crack cocaine vs. powdered cocaine that’s resulted in the imprisonment of a disproportionate number of Blacks, like Jennings, and other minorities.

"Eugenia Jennings’s 22-year sentence for her nonviolent offense was overkill," Julie Stewart of Families Against Mandatory Minimums said in a statement on Nov. 21. "Today, President Obama rights that wrong, and we are grateful to him. We urge the president to continue exercising his clemency power and grant more commutations to many deserving federal prisoners, like Eugenia, who have paid a hefty price for their mistakes and deserve a second chance."

Life of ‘misery, whippings’

Obama didn’t specify why he commuted Jennings’ time.

"The president concluded that clemency was warranted for these individuals" – Obama also issued five pardons – "because they demonstrated genuine remorse for their crimes and remarkable rehabilitation into law-abiding, productive citizens and active members of their communities," White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said.

Obama was no doubt aware of Jennings’ plight:  Democratic Sen. Richard Durban of Illinois, Obama’s former partner in the Senate, had been aggressively pushing for her release for years.

Jennings’ story is as sad as it is compelling. She’s battling cancer, was beaten by a surrogate mother, surrounded by others who used drugs, left occasionally with a prostitute who sexually assaulted her, sexually abused by one of her half-brothers and had a stepfather who tried to rape her. Even the judge who put her in jail felt sorry for her.

"Mrs. Jennings, I’m not mad at you," federal Judge G. Patrick Murphy said as he sentenced Jennings in 2000. "The fact of the matter is nobody has even been there for you when you needed it. Never. You never had anyone who stood up for you. All the government’s even done is just kick your behind. When you were a child and you had been abused, the government wasn’t there. When your stepfather abused you, the government wasn’t there. When your stepbrother abused you, the government wasn’t there. But when you got a little bit of crack, the government’s there."

"Your whole life has been a life of deprivation, misery, whippings, and there is no way to unwind that," the judge added, "but the truth of the matter is it’s not in my hands. As I told you, Congress has determined that the best way to handle people who are troublesome is we just lock them up. Congress passed the laws."

Shifting from jail to treatment

The Obama administration has been shifting the focus of the White House’s drug policy away from jail as a solution to the nation’s drug problem to treatment-based solution. In the last fiscal year, the administration spent $10.4 billion on drug prevention and treatment programs, compared with $9.2 billion on domestic drug enforcement.

In addition, Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act into law. The act reduced the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.

The changes in approach and Jennings’ upcoming release are welcome news for those who’ve long complained that the "War on Drugs" started during Ronald Reagan’s presidency has failed miserably and needs to be scrapped. Still, they expect more from Obama.

Note of hope from ACLU

"While we applaud President Obama’s decision to allow Eugenia Marie Jennings, a mother of three suffering from cancer who has served 10 years of her 22-year sentence for selling 13.9 grams of crack cocaine, to return to her family 12 years earlier than she otherwise would have, we hope this stands not as a merely isolated gesture of generosity, but rather marks the beginning of an enduring, fundamental change in the president’s systemic approach to drug policy," the American Civil Liberties Union said on its blog.

"Indeed, many nonviolent drug offenders – including Ms. Jennings – do not benefit from the newly-reduced disparity," the ACLU added. "And even those who do benefit still receive a sentence that is disproportionately harsh and that disproportionately affects African-Americans."

Margaret Love, a Washington attorney who handles clemency cases, told the Huffington Post that if Jennings’ release "signals the president’s willingness to take a look at the many cases that will not benefit from the change in the law, then it is indeed good news."

"I would like to see the Justice Department’s clemency process be the source of recommendations for the president," she added.

Jasmine Tyler, deputy director of the National Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, said her group has been concerned about the paucity of pardons and commutations during Obama’s presidency.

"This is a great mechanism for him to step up on the issue, given that he supported the complete elimination of crack cocaine disparities." Tyler told the Huffington Post.