奥巴马赦免八名非暴力毒犯

President BarackObama will shorten the sentences of eight prisoners serving time for nonviolentdrug crimes and pardon 12 ex-convicts, the JusticeDepartment announced Wednesday.

周三，美国司法部宣布，奥巴马总统将对八名非暴力毒贩刑期进行减免并撤销12项罪名。

Barbara, center,with her father, daughter Alannah, and grandson. (Courtesy of Barbara Scrivner)

巴巴拉(中，巴巴拉斯克里夫纳)，和她父亲，女儿Alannah及孙子。

The act ofpresidential clemency is traditional around Christmastime, but Obama's action is part of his administration's broader push to roll back harsh mandatorydrug sentences that imprisoned people for decades for nonviolent drug "tough on crime" drug laws contributed to America's record of locking up a larger share ofits population than any other nation in the world.

总统赦免的行为是圣诞期间的一个传统，但奥巴马的这个举动是他这届政府广泛推动的了结毒品犯罪量刑过重的一部分，例如一些非暴力毒品贩关押长达十多年。对于盘踞入狱人数比例世界最高记录的美国来说，"严厉打击毒品犯罪法"可谓"功不可没"。

Recently, judgeshave been given more flexibility around mandatory minimums, and in 2010Congress narrowed the disparity that sent crack dealers to prison for a hundredtimes longer than cocaine dealers. But those who were incarcerated under theold laws remained there, prompting the Justice Department to announce in Aprilthat nonviolent offenders could apply for clemency through a special initiativecalled"Clemency Project 2014." Thousands of prisoners have done so, andan outside group of nonprofit lawyers is currently vetting the applications. Anadministration official said the president will most likely grant morecommutations of this kind as the applications begin to land on the pardonattorney's desk.

最近，对于最低量刑，法官被赋予了较大的灵活性。2010年国会议员达成共识，即对暴力毒贩关押期可比可卡因毒品贩长一百倍。但对于按之前法规关押的罪犯却成了两难问题，联想起（今年）四月美国司法部宣布的，非暴力罪犯可通过被称为《宽恕计划2014》的特殊活动，申请给予宽大处理。由此数千囚犯都可以去申请，而且一些非营利律师团体目前正对这种申请进行审核。一名政府官员表示，总统很有可能批准更多的这类经过律师审核的减刑申请。

Barbara Scrivner,who was serving 30 years for her minor role in her drug-dealer husband's meth ring, is among the eight prisonerswhose sentences were commuted by the president on Wednesday. The subject of aYahoo News feature last April, Scrivner said that two of her previous clemencyapplications were denied by the pardon attorney's office in 2005 and 2011, though even the judge whosentenced her unequivocally supported her petition. Obama and Attorney GeneralEric Holder reformed the pardon attorney's office in April, replacing Ronald Rodgers, who hadbeen criticized for knee-jerk rejections of petitions, with Deborah Leff, an advocacy-mindedattorney, to lead the office. One of the factors Leff may be givingless weight to is remorse in petitions. In the past, prisoners wererequired to show unqualified contrition to get a second lookfrom the pardon attorney.

巴巴拉斯克里夫纳的丈夫曾是个毒品贩子，她只因在丈夫毒品销售链中充当了一个小角色就被判了30年，她是总统在周三赦免的八名罪犯当中的一个。在去年四月的雅虎专题新闻中，斯克里夫纳曾表示，她前分别在2005年和2011年两次递交的减刑申请都被检察官驳回了，尽管对他判刑的法官明确表示支持他去申请。奥巴马和总检察长埃里克在四月对赦免代理部门进行了了改革，换掉了罗纳德罗杰斯，他和另一位名为底波拉莱夫的辩护律师，曾被批为像条件反射似的驳回申请。其中的个中原因是莱夫可能认为申请书中没有真诚悔过。以前曾有规定，囚犯们若是表现的不合格（不真心忏悔），赦免律师根本不会多看一眼。

Scrivner's attorney, Sam Kauffman, said his clientcried when he called her to tell her she had received the commutation from thepresident. She still had more than four years of her sentence left to serve.

斯克里夫纳的律师，山姆考夫曼说，当他给他的委托人打电话，告诉他总统已批准减刑时，她哭了。即使她还有四年多的服刑期。

"It should have happened a long time ago,but what are you going to do?" Kauffman said.

“这本该很早之前就该发生的事，但你能怎么办？”考夫曼说。

In April, Scrivnertold Yahoo she wanted to get out of prison to be there for her daughter,Alannah, who was just a toddler when she was sentenced.

斯克里夫纳在四月告诉雅虎，她曾想逃出监狱去看女儿，他的女儿叫阿兰那，当她被判刑时，女儿才刚学会走步。

"Ten years isa long time to be in prison. And now it's been 20 years," Scrivner said at the time."It just doesn't seem real to me."

“监狱里的10年太漫长了，眼见快住了20年了” 斯克里夫纳此时说道，“对我来说这太不真实了”

The eightprisoners, all of whom have served at least 10 years, will be released in June.

这八名囚犯都至少服了10年刑期，将在6月获释。

"While all eight were properly heldaccountable for their criminal actions, their punishments did not fit theircrimes, and sentencing laws and policies have since been updated to ensure morefairness for low-level offenders," Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole said in a statement.

“对于他们的犯罪行为，这八名罪犯都已全部承担了责任，对于他们的罪行处罚不适，为确保对低级别犯罪罪犯更公平，量刑法律和法规此后将会进行修正”副检察长，吉姆-科尔在一份声明中说到。