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25 Berkeley J. Crim. L. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/bjcl25 and id is 1 raw text is: President Obama's Misunderstood Clemency Initiative James Russell Sunshine* President Obama's Clemency Initiative resulted in the commuta- tion of1, 696federal sentences. Despite this achievement, some advocates of a more robust use of executive clemency criticize the initiative as overly bureaucratic, chaotic, and limited. This article argues that these criti- cisms stem from a combination of misunderstandings of and disagree- ments with the Obama administration's actual goals. Through exclusive and in-depth interviews conducted by the author with high ranking offi- cials from the Obama White House, Department of Justice, and Clemency Initiative 2014, this article shows that administration officials did not en- vision the initiative as a substitute for broader criminal justice reform legislation. Rather, the administration viewed the initiative as a limited, time-specific remedy to help alleviate a particular unfairness: inmates serving excessively long sentences based on the date they were sentenced. Placed in its proper context, this article argues that many of the aspects of the Clemency Initiative that have been criticized were features neces- sary for the initiative's success, as defined by the administration. In tro d u ctio n ....................................................................................... . . 2 I. The Scope and Categories of Executive Clemency ......................... 5 II. W hat Led to the Clem ency Initiative?............................................... 11 A. President Obama's Unique Commitment to Clemency........ 11 B. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 and Retroactive DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z389G5GF02. * University of Michigan Law School. Former Research Associate in the White House Office of Communications (2015-17) and Fellow at the University of Michigan's Pro- gram in Race, Law & History (2018-19). For their suggestions and edits, I am indebted to the editors of the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. I am deeply appreciative of Pro- fessor Kate Andrias, those who took part in the University of Michigan's Program in Race, Law & History, and for my family and friends who supported me during this en- deavor. I also want to thank those who generously agreed to be interviewed for this arti- cle, both for the access they provided and for their work as public servants, activists, and attorneys.

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