Just in time for Christmas, President Joe Biden announced on Friday that he is “issuing a Proclamation that will pardon additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law.”
But the Big Guy isn’t stopping there.
He also commuted “the sentences of 11 people who are serving disproportionately long sentences for non-violent drug offenses.”
Lest you think the president is simply pandering once again to potheads, one of the people who received clemency, Washington resident Felipe Arriaga, was convicted of delivering pounds of methamphetamines to Montana and conspiring to distribute it on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. For that, he was serving a 20-year sentence.
Another lucky convict who’s about to be sprung is Earlie Deacon Barber of Alabama.
According to AL.com, “Earlie Deacon ‘Freak’ Barber, 49, of Dothan was serving a life sentence for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of a mixture and substance containing cocaine and more than 50 grams of a mixture and substance containing cocaine base.”
Freak received an enhanced sentence after pleading guilty in September 2009 because he already had “two prior felony drug convictions, including a 10-year sentence for possession of cocaine in Alabama in 2003,” according to the outlet. “His earliest arrest for cocaine possession dates back to 1998.”
Then there’s James Michael “Big Cheese” Barber, another cokehead who, according to WBTV, was arrested with nine other men in September 2013 and pleaded guilty to being part of a local cocaine trafficking operation.
“Law enforcement said Barber and the others sold drugs in Gaston and Mecklenburg counties for more than a decade,” WBTV reported.
“While executing the arrest warrants and search warrants,” on the coke ring, “law enforcement seized three firearms, approximately $67,000 in cash, two motorcycles, three vehicles, bullets, drugs and drug making paraphernalia,” according to the Department of Justice in 2013.
Again, because of prior felonies, Big Cheese faced life in prison, but ultimately, he was sentenced to just 15 years.
And the list goes on.
In August 2011, Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that Deondre Cordell Higgins of Kansas City had been sentenced to life in prison “for his role in a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.”
“Evidence introduced during the trial indicated that Higgins had hundreds of customers and sold large quantities of crack cocaine. Undercover police detectives purchased crack cocaine from Higgins and several co-defendants,” according to Phillips’ office at the time. “Higgins and coconspirators distributed up to five kilograms of crack cocaine in Jackson County. Higgins also paid prostitutes who worked for him with crack cocaine.”
The result of a multi-year investigation, Leroy Lymons, 34, of Pensacola, Florida, was sentenced to life in prison on June 12, 2012, by Senior United States District Judge Lacey A. Collier, for his conviction on federal drug conspiracy charges.
“The testimony at trial established that Lymons was a supervisory-level conspirator in a multi-state drug operation and responsible, along with his coconspirators, for distributing approximately eighty (80) kilograms of cocaine between January 1, 2010, and April 21, 2010,” according to the Northern District of Florida’s U.S. attorney’s office. “The wholesale value of the cocaine was estimated to be in excess of two million dollars.”
“The organization was identified and systematically dismantled by a federal task force comprised of federal, state and local officers,” the statement continued. “The investigation has resulted in multiple federal and state arrests and indictments in Florida and elsewhere, the seizure of additional kilograms of cocaine and thousands of dollars in illegal drug proceeds, and the seizure of vehicles and other assets connected with this conspiracy.”
Lymons’ life sentence was commuted to 27 years.
According to President Biden, all 11 convicts on his not-so-naughty list “are serving disproportionately long sentences for non-violent drug offenses.”
“All of them would have been eligible to receive significantly lower sentences if they were charged with the same offense today,” the president claimed.
Not content with interfering in the federal judicial system, Biden said “no one should be in a local jail or state prison” for “the use or possession of marijuana.”
“That’s why I continue to urge Governors to” pardon state marijuana offenses “and applaud those who have since taken action,” the president said.
And all of this leniency is ostensibly being done in the name of “equal justice under [the] law.”
“I have exercised my clemency power more than any recent predecessor has at this point in their presidency,” Biden boasted. “And while today’s announcement marks important progress, my Administration will continue to review clemency petitions and deliver reforms that advance equal justice, address racial disparities, strengthen public safety, and enhance the wellbeing of all Americans.”
One must only assume that the drug cartels, whose products — many of them laced with the deadly fentanyl — are continuing to flow over the president’s wide-open borders, are celebrating Biden’s commitment to addressing these “racial disparities.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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