For Immediate Release
Date: July 2, 2007
Contact: media@famm.org
Libby's free, but President Bush still ignores thousands
of deserving prisoners serving mandatory sentences
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) President Julie Stewart issued the following statement in regard to the announcement that President Bush has commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby:
"Today President Bush showed mercy to a White House insider, but where is his compassion for the thousands of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders languishing in federal prisons for decades under mandatory minimum sentencing laws? This President has used his clemency powers stingily for the last seven years, and now he chooses to save a friend from going to prison. There are hundreds if not thousands of worthy clemency petitions awaiting the President's decision -- these prisoners don't have the same White House connections as Scooter Libby, but they deserve the same serious consideration he received. The President needs to grant these applicants to prove that clemency is available not just to the well-connected but to every deserving prisoner."
Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is a national non-partisan nonprofit organization that promotes just sentencing policies. Many of FAMM's members are prisoners, children and families torn apart by unjustifiably harsh mandatory minimum penalties. Click here to read their cases.