US teen sex trafficking victim granted clemency over murder

Yahoo – AFP, Nova SAFO, January 7, 2019

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, pictured in Nashville in 2014, said Cyntoia
Brown had been given "too harsh" a sentence (AFP Photo/Jason Davis)

Chicago (AFP) - A US trafficking victim serving a life sentence for killing a man who bought her for sex when she was a teenager was granted clemency Monday following a celebrity-backed viral campaign for her freedom.

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam said Cyntoia Brown, now 30, had been given "too harsh" a sentence for the 2004 murder of a real estate agent in the city of Nashville.

Johnny Allen had picked up Brown, who was 16 at the time and a runaway under the influence of a dangerous pimp, and taken her to his home for sex.

The ex-Army sharpshooter allegedly showed off his firearms and "grabbed" Brown forcefully between her legs. She said she shot him in fear for her life.

A jury convicted Brown of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery, and she was given life with the possibility of parole after serving at least 51 years in prison.

Calling the case "tragic and complex," Haslam granted clemency under the condition of a 10-year parole. Brown will be released on August 7 after undergoing training on returning to society.

"Cyntoia Brown committed, by her own admission, a horrific crime at the age of 16," Haslam said in a statement.

"Yet, imposing a life sentence on a juvenile that would require her to serve at least 51 years before even being eligible for parole consideration is too harsh, especially in light of the extraordinary steps Ms. Brown has taken to rebuild her life."

Without the governor's intervention, Brown would have remained in prison at least until 2055.

Kim Kardashian West, seen in New York in December 2018, has lauded Brown's

"courage" (AFP Photo/Roy Rochlin)

In a statement released by her attorneys, Brown thanked her supporters and the governor and promised to "do everything I can to justify your faith in me."

"My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been," she added.

Prison transformation

Brown earned a high school degree while incarcerated and was on track to complete her college education this year. The governor's office said numerous prison employees and volunteers attested to her personal growth.

"Her transformation, when given the opportunity, is nothing short of miraculous," her attorneys Charles Bone and J Houston Gordon said in a joint statement.

"She is truly a remarkable young woman with so much to offer this world and will now have that chance."

Brown's case was featured in a 2011 documentary, and was the subject of a social media campaign involving multiple celebrities who advocated for clemency, saying she should have been treated as a traumatized child victim of sex trafficking.

"Cyntoia never should have been sentenced so harshly to begin with, and we can't lose sight of the fact that she is still receiving an excessive 10 years' probation," the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted in response to the clemency news.

"The fight against harsh sentencing laws goes on."

Last month, actress Ashley Judd implored her home state's governor to grant clemency by saying Brown "deserves our empathy and your mercy."

In response to the governor's action, reality star Kim Kardashian, who has previously described Brown as a victim with "the courage to fight back," tweeted simply: "Thank you Governor Haslam."

US President Barack Obama speaks as he tours the El Reno Federal  Correctional

Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma, July 16, 2015 (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

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Palestinian teenager jailed for slapping soldiers leaves prison

Yahoo – AFP, July 29, 2018

Ahed Tamimi, seen here in a file picture, was arrested in the early hours of
December 19 (AFP Photo/THOMAS COEX)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi left prison Sunday after an eight-month sentence for slapping two Israeli soldiers, an episode captured on video that made her a symbol of resistance for Palestinians, a prison service spokesman said.

Assaf Librati told AFP Tamimi, 17, and her mother, who was also jailed over the incident, were being driven by Israeli authorities from a prison inside Israel to a checkpoint leading to the occupied West Bank, where they live.

"They just left the prison," Librati said.

Israeli authorities provided conflicting information on which checkpoint they were being taken to.

They were first expected to arrive at a checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, but there were later indications they would be taken to a crossing at Rantis.

Both Tamimi and her mother were sentenced to eight months in an Israeli military court following a plea deal over the December incident which the family said took place in their yard in Nabi Saleh in the West Bank.

Video of it went viral, leading Palestinians to view her as a hero standing up to Israel's occupation.

Her now-familiar image has been painted on Israel's separation wall cutting off the West Bank. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has praised her and social media has been flooded with support.

But for Israelis, Tamimi is being used by her activist family as a pawn in staged provocations.

They point to a series of previous such incidents involving her, with older pictures of her confronting soldiers widely shared online.

Many Israelis also praised the restraint of the soldiers, who remained calm throughout, though others said her actions merited a tougher response.

Embassy protests

Tamimi was arrested in the early hours of December 19, four days after the incident. She was 16 at the time.

Her mother Nariman was also arrested, as was her cousin Nour, who was freed in March.

Israel's military said the soldiers were in the area on the day of the incident to prevent Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists.

The video shows the cousins approaching two soldiers and telling them to leave before shoving, kicking and slapping them.

Ahed Tamimi is the most aggressive of the two in the video.

The heavily armed soldiers do not respond in the face of what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seriously harm them.

They then move backwards after Nariman Tamimi becomes involved.

The scuffle took place amid clashes and protests against US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Relatives say that a member of the Tamimi family was wounded in the head by a rubber bullet fired during those protests.

Asked in an interview with AFP if she had a message for Israelis who think of her as a "terrorist", Tamimi said she would ask them to "put themselves in my place, just that, nothing more"https://t.co/5AFFdg45db

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 30, 2018

VIDEO: Palestinian teenager #AhedTamimi holds a press conference after serving eight months in prison for slapping Israeli soldiers, an episode that made her a symbol of resistance for Palestinians pic.twitter.com/fdilm2P6Fd

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 30, 2018

Wrongly jailed 'satanic' daycare couple gets $3.4 mn

Yahoo – AFP, August 24, 2017

The Kellers were freed from prison that year, but not fully cleared of the charges
against them until last June, when prosecutors finally declared them innocent

A US couple wrongly jailed for 21 years on charges of sexually assaulting children as part of a satanic cult, received $3.4 million Wednesday from the state of Texas, months after prosecutors acknowledged their innocence.

Operators of a daycare facility, Dan and Fran Keller were at the center of a sensational case in 1991, accused by children of abuse and dark rituals that included dismembering babies and torturing pets.

Authorities later acknowledged that the children were improperly interviewed, triggering false memories, amid a climate of fear fueled by a belief around the nation that satanists were preying upon children.

The physician who claimed to have discovered physical evidence of abuse also acknowledged in 2013 that he had made a mistake in assessing the source of one of the children's injuries.

The Kellers were freed from prison that year, but not fully cleared of the charges against them until last June, when prosecutors finally declared them innocent.

By Texas law, both are entitled to $80,000 compensation for each year they spent in prison. They picked up a $3.4 million payment on Wednesday, their lawyer Keith Hampton told AFP.

"They are happy," Hampton said.

The couple had been living in poverty since their release, unable to find work in their advanced age and with their past legal troubles, according to the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.

"This means we don't have to worry about pinching pennies on Social Security, and late bills. It means we will actually be free. We can start living -- and no more nightmares," Fran Keller, 67, told the newspaper.

She broke down in tears Tuesday in front of news cameras as she found out on the phone that the state would provide compensation.

"I really would like an apology from the state. But since we're not going to get it verbally, this will be good enough," the American-Statesman reported Fran Keller as saying.

Between 1991 and mid-2016, Texas had paid 101 wrongfully convicted prisoners $93.6 million, according to the Texas Tribune.

Related Article:

US convict granted stay of execution after new DNA evidence

US Supreme Court spares Alabama man from execution

A US man awaiting execution in Alabama has had his life spared a seventh time following a last-minute stay ordered by the US Supreme Court. The 74-year-old was convicted in the 1982 slaying of his girlfriend's husband.

Deutsche Welle, 4 November 2016

The US Supreme Court ordered a last-minute stay of execution Thursday as Alabama state officials were preparing to put Thomas Douglas Arthur to death by lethal injection. Arthur - who maintains his innocence - has been on death row for more than three decades after being convicted of shooting to death Troy Wicker as he slept in his home in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, court records showed. Prosecutors said Arthur's girlfriend, Judy Wicker, paid him $10,000 to kill her husband.

The Supreme Court's order did not state a reason for the stay of execution but had earlier ordered the state of Alabama and other states to review a controversial law that gives judges - rather than juries - the power to impose the death penalty.

Arthur's defense lawyers had challenged the constitutionality of Alabama's lethal injection method of execution on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment. In their challenge, his lawyers claimed that midazolam, the first drug that is used in executions causes "excruciatingly painful and agonizing effects."

International drug companies - many under EU pressure - have stopped supplying drugs used in lethal injections and many states have improvised lethal cocktails that often lead to complications that prolong the condemned man's suffering.

Arthur's latest scheduled execution followed three trials and another man's confession to the crime. In all, Alabama had scheduled Arthur's execution six times before Thursday.

Arthur had two convictions overturned on constitutional grounds, including improper introduction of evidence about a prior murder conviction. After his third conviction in 1991, he asked the jury to sentence him to death. Arthur's former girlfriend, Judy Wicker told police a black man raped her, knocked her unconscious and shot her husband at their home.

In court, prosecutors had claimed that Arthur, who is white, disguised himself as a black man. At her trial, Judy Wicker denied Arthur was the killer but later changed her testimony during his trial, Arthur's lawyers said. She was convicted of murder and paroled after 10 years in prison, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. Limited crime scene testing found no DNA link to Gilbert or Arthur. Alabama lost a rape kit that might have cleared Arthur, his lawyers said.

jar/sms (Reuters, AP)

'Implementation Day' for Iran nuclear deal as prisoners freed

Yahoo – AFP, Simon Sturdee with Arthur MacMillan in Tehran, January 16, 2016

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) and EU foreign policy chief
 Federica Mogherini hold a joint press conference during the E3/EU+3 and Iran talks
 at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna on January 16,
2016 (AFP Photo/Joe Klamar)

Vienna (AFP) - The historic nuclear accord between Iran and major powers entered into force Saturday as the UN confirmed that Tehran has shrunk its atomic programme and as painful sanctions were lifted on the Islamic republic.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said its "inspectors on the ground verified that Iran has carried out all measures" agreed under the July 14 agreement.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, representing the six powers, said that as a result "multilateral and national economic and financial sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme are lifted".

US Secretary of State John Kerry 

holds a press conference in Vienna 

on January 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Joe Klamar)

"All sides remain firmly convinced that this historic deal is both strong and fair, and that it meets the requirements of all," Mogherini said in Vienna in a joint statement with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"This achievement clearly demonstrates that with political will, perseverance, and through multilateral diplomacy, we can solve the most difficult issues and find practical solutions that are effectively implemented," they said.

The so-called "Implementation Day" for the accord also followed news of a prisoner swap between Iran and the United States in another sign of thawing relations between the two foes since the July 14 agreement.

The steps taken by Iran, combined with ultra-close IAEA inspections, extend to at least a year -- from a few months previously -- how long Iran would need to make one nuclear bomb's worth of fissile material.

They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium -- enough before the deal for several bombs -- and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.

Iran has always denied wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

In what was hailed as a momentous diplomatic breakthrough, the Vienna agreement was nailed down after two years of rollercoaster negotiations following the June 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

The highly complex deal drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action.

In addition it put Iran and the United States on the road to better relations some 35 years after the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, and at a particularly explosive time in the Middle East.

The four Iranian-American detainees to be freed by Iran included Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho, a senior US official said Saturday.

The others were Amir Hekmati and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, Washington said. A fifth American, identified as Matthew Trevitick, was also to be released as part of a different process.

In exchange Washington said it had granted clemency to seven Iranians, six of whom were dual US-Iranian citizens, and dropped charges against 14 more.

Daggers drawn

The agreement, heralded as US President Barack Obama's biggest major foreign policy triumph, has by no means been universally cheered, however.

Obama's Republican opponents charge that it fails to do enough to ensure Iran will never get the bomb, a complaint shared by Israel, Iran's arch foe widely assumed to have nuclear weapons itself.

Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran's other great regional rival, is also alarmed at the prospect of warmer US-Iran ties and of predominantly Shiite Iran, newly flush with oil revenues, increasing its influence.

Already Saudi Arabia and Iran, fighting a proxy war in Yemen and key players in the Syrian conflict, are at daggers drawn following Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shiite cleric in early January and the subsequent ransacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Iran's imminent return to the oil market has also contributed to the sharp slide in the price of crude to 12-year lows of under $30 per barrel this week, putting Saudi Arabia's public finances under strain.

The lifting of sanctions on Iran is "going to put 500,000 barrels per day more on the market", said James Williams of WTRG Economics. Some analysts believe $20 oil is on the horizon.

Bumpy road

The deal has more than a decade to run, which is likely to be a bumpy road, experts say, not least if more hardline governments take power in Tehran or Washington.

FM #Steinmeier on #IranDeal #ImplementationDay: „Historic success for diplomacy.“ #IranTalks #JCPOA pic: archive pic.twitter.com/sB7W3PwoBn

— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) January 16, 2016

#ImplementationDay--I thank God for this blessing & bow to the greatness of the patient nation of Iran. Congrats on this glorious victory!

— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) January 16, 2016

"First, yesterday marked a milestone in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon." —@POTUS #IranDeal https://t.co/YPpOVULMt2

— The Iran Deal (@TheIranDeal) January 17, 2016

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US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to journalists about his negotiations

 with Iran upon his arrival from Vienna at Joint Base Andrews on January 17,

2016 (AFP Photo/Kevin Lamarque)

Obama reaffirms will to close terror 'magnet' Guantanamo

Yahoo – AFP, December 18, 2015

US President Barack Obama holds a press conference in the briefing room at
 the White House in Washington, DC, on December 18, 2015 (AFP Photo/
Nicholas Kamm)

Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama reaffirmed on Friday his determination to close Guantanamo Bay, with backing from Congress or -- as a last resort -- by executive decree.

"Guantanamo continues to be one of the key magnets for jihadi recruitment," Obama told a year-end news conference.

"We see the Internet traffic. We see how Guantanamo has been used to create this mythology that America is at war with Islam," said the president, who made shutting down the military prison in Cuba a central electoral pledge.

Obama has repeatedly clashed with the Republican-dominated Congress for blocking his efforts to close the prison, and he left open the door to bypassing them altogether if they continue to do so.

"We will wait until Congress has said no to a plan with numbers attached to it before we say anything definitive about my executive authority here," he said.

The White House is currently working on a new proposal to close the prison set up in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

"I'm not going to automatically assume that Congress says no," Obama said. "Every once in a while they will surprise you."

Obama's remarks follow the announcement that 17 low-risk detainees will be transferred from Guantanamo Bay, probably in mid-January, putting the military prison's population below 100.

Pope Francis urges countries to review laws on refugees, migrants

Laws on migration should "reflect a readiness to welcome migrants and to facilitate their integration," according to the Argentine pontiff. He was speaking as thousands seek entry to the EU, many via Italy.

Deutsche Welle, 15 Dec 2015

In a call for compassion for the poor and vulnerable, on Tuesday urged countries to review immigration laws and integrate migrants in an appeal that strikes at the heart of debates in Europe and the United States over the issue.

"With regard to migrants, I would ask that legislation on migration be reviewed, so, while respecting reciprocal rights and responsibilities, it can reflect a readiness to welcome migrants and to facilitate their integration," he said the occasion of the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace.

"Special concern should be paid to the conditions for legal residency, since having to live clandestinely can lead to criminal behavior," the pontiff, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, said.

The annual message is sent to world leaders, international organizations and the United Nations.

The pontiff's message comes as some EU members have responded to the biggest refugee crisis to hit the continent since World War II by erecting barriers and rejecting a German proposal of a quota system to settle refugees across member states.

Meanwhile, immigration in the United States remains a divisive issue ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Conservative Republicans have repeatedly slammed President Barack Obama's immigration reform to bring some 5 million illegal immigrants - US residents for many years in most cases - out of the shadows.

A plan to increase the number of Syria refugees allowed asylum in the United States has similarly faced resistance from Republicans.

Leading Republican candidate Donald Trump has gone so far as to call for a wall along the US-Mexican border, deporting up to 11 million immigrants and preventing Muslims from entering the country.

In February, the pope is schedule to visit Mexico where he plans to address immigration during a mass on the US-Mexican border.

Pope Francis also touched on other issues including wars, poverty, the death penalty, prison reform, unemployment and the environment.

cw/msh (AP, dpa, Reuters)

Lethal drugs a headache for US death penalty states

Yahoo – AFP, Sébastien Blanc, 4 Nov 2015

Signs against the death penalty are seen in front of the Supreme Court in

Washington on July 2, 2008 (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

Washington (AFP) - The US states that apply the death penalty are struggling to find ways to legally carry out the ultimate punishment due to both a shortage of lethal injection drugs and controversy over whether those drugs inflict tremendous pain on inmates.

From California to the Carolinas, the drugs shortfall is affecting most of the 31 states with the death penalty, and is contributing to the decline in the number of executions in the United States, which have dropped steadily since 1999.

The dilemma was highlighted Tuesday in the case of Missouri inmate Ernest Johnson, a 55-year-old convicted triple murderer with a brain tumor who was granted a last-minute temporary stay of execution by the Supreme Court.

A death penalty supporter rallies outside

the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification

Prison in Jackson, Georgia, on

September 21, 2011  (AFP Photo/

Erik S. Lesser)

Johnson's lawyers say the use in the execution of pentobarbital, which numbs the central nervous system including parts of the brain, will provoke excruciating pain, violating the US constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."

"The drugs have been challenged for a long time, ever since the late 1980s," said Deborah Denno, an expert on the death penalty and the director of the Neuroscience and Law Center at Fordham University School of Law in New York.

"They are challenged more now because the drug shortage started in around 2009," she told AFP.

Searching for lethal drugs

Since January 2014, a number of executions have been botched, sparking public outrage.

Oklahoma death row inmate Clayton Lockett took 40 minutes to die. In Ohio, Dennis McGuire took 25 minutes to die after being injected with an untried drug cocktail.

For years, pharmaceutical companies -- most of them based in Europe, where the death penalty has been abolished -- have refused to provide states with the necessary drugs, leading some to turn to suppliers not backed by US regulators.

"What we know is that states are skirting the law and dealing with less than reputable drug companies," said Dale Baich, an Arizona-based assistant federal public defender who represents prisoners on death row.

Some states, like Arizona and Nebraska, have reportedly tried to purchase the barbiturate sodium thiopental in India on the sly.

"The issue will continue as long as the states continue to be secret about the source of the drugs used in lethal injection executions," Baich said.

New drugs, wrong drugs

The revision by some states of their lethal injection protocols to reflect necessary changes in the drug cocktails due to the shortage have prompted accusations of slapdash, improvised procedures.

There have been reported incidents of overdoses, drug intolerance and mistakes in preparing the injections.

Last month, an autopsy report made public in Oklahoma showed that an inmate was killed using potassium acetate -- a drug not listed in the approved protocol -- instead of potassium chloride.

California is mired in a debate over whether a single-dose injection -- not a three-drug combination -- can be used.

A growing number of death row inmates are filing complaints in court, saying that certain drugs could cause inmates to suffer unduly.

A man wears an anti-death penalty shirt during a vigil against the death penalty

 in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington on June 29, 2013 (AFP

Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

The drug controversies have led governors and courts in a handful of states to impose a moratorium on executions until the issues are resolved.

Ohio has delayed all executions until 2017.

Full supply in Texas

Virginia had to go cap in hand to ask for the rare pentobarbital drug from Texas, the most active US death penalty state, in order to execute a convicted murderer.

"Texas seems to have a rather steady supply of a drug for reasons unknown," Denno explained, suggesting they are possibly coming from a compounding pharmacy, which are not as strictly regulated as traditional drug makers.

Last week, Florida executed convicted murderer Jerry Correll, who had benefited from a stay for several months due to questions over the use of midazolam, a sedative.

Several states have grown wary of this substance from the benzodiazepine class of drugs, even though the Supreme Court has approved its use in Oklahoma.

The stalemate has led some states to turn toward old methods -- Utah has approved the use of the firing squad if lethal injection drugs are unavailable, and Oklahoma -- before putting a hold on executions -- had approved the gas chamber.

Obama vetoes $612 bn defense bill citing Gitmo, 'gimmicks'

Yahoo – AFP, 23 Oct 2015

US President Barack Obama vetoes the National Defense Authorization Act in the

 Oval Office of the White House on October 22, 2015 (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama vetoed a $612 billion defense spending bill Thursday, saying it prevented the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison and wasted money on unwanted programs.

Making a rare public show of rejecting a law, Obama said the text agreed by the Republican-controlled Congress "falls woefully short" in key areas.

Obama said the bill did "a number of good things," including reforming military retirement and funding cyber security, but "resorts to gimmicks" and funded unwanted programs.

He zeroed in on provisions that would restrict the transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay on the tip of Cuba, to the United States.

Speaker of the House John Boehner holds 

a news conference on October 21, 2015

(AFP Photo/Chip Somodevilla)

"This legislation specifically impedes our ability to close Guantanamo," he said.

"Guantanamo is one of the premier mechanisms for jihadists to recruit, it is time for us to close it. It's outdated, it's expensive."

After embarrassing false starts, Obama is making a final push to close Guantanamo prison.

But to fulfill that glaringly incomplete campaign promise he faces unpalatable compromises and internal resistance.

But the fate of those deemed too dangerous to release -- but too difficult to prosecute -- has stymied his efforts.

The administration is looking at military facilities like Fort Leavenworth, Kansas or the Navy Brig in Charleston, South Carolina as possible destinations for inmates.

But Congress wants to have control of any transfer and to ensure that prisoners do not have full rights afforded to American civilians.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has campaigned for the prison's closure, welcomed the move.

"The president clearly did the right thing by rejecting the bill's restrictions on transferring Guantanamo prisoners who have been locked up without charge or trial for years on end," said executive director Anthony Romero.

"Now Congress needs to send back the president a bill that will let him close Guantanamo and end indefinite detention, and he needs to take decisive action to make his promise to close the prison a reality.

"He needs to do this soon, before his legacy is irreparably tarnished by the stain of Guantanamo."

Obama also said the budget "prevents a wide range of reforms that are necessary for us to get our military modernized."

"We have repeatedly put forward a series of reforms eliminating reforms that the Pentagon does not want, Congress keeps stuffing 'em back in," he said.

"We end up wasting money, we end up diverting resources from things that we do need."

House Speaker John Boehner instantly lambasted Obama as "placing domestic politics ahead of our troops."

He added: "President Obama has put America's national security at risk."

Early release for thousands of US drug offenders

Thousands jailed in the United States for drug offenses are set to be released early in a bid to reduce the inmate population. The US has the highest rate of incarceration of any industrialized country.

Deutsche Welle, 7 Oct 2015

More than 5,500 inmates are set to go free in November in the largest one-time release of federal inmates in US history. As many as 40,000 prisoners could be released in coming years.

The US Sentencing Commission, an independent policy panel, voted last year to retroactively apply lower sentences for those convicted of drug-related felonies. On average sentences are being cut by an average of 25 months among federal inmates.

Obama presses to reduce prison population

President Obama has called for broad
 reforms to reduce the US's 2million
prisoner population.

Two years ago, President Barack Obama's Justice Department directed federal prosecutors to avoid seeking mandatory minimum sentences - which limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter sentences - for nonviolent drug offenders, as part of a broader initiative to reduce the country's incarceration rate.

The US has the largest prison population on the planet. There are 206,000 inmates in federal prisons, up from about 25,000 in 1980, according to the US Bureau of Prisons.

There were a total of 1.56 million inmates in federal and state prisons at the end of 2014, according to public figures from the US Department of Justice.

Just spoke to the NAACP about criminal justice reform, something many broadly agree on. Some stats:

— President Obama (@POTUS) 14 juli 2015

Reform advocates have long criticized sentencing disparities rooted in 1980s War on Drugs legislation that targeted crack cocaine and overwhelmingly jails minorities in troubled city centers.

A drug policy advocacy group welcomed the move but said it was no substitute for structural reform.

"Congress still needs to pass comprehensive criminal justice reform," Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance said in a statement.

jar/jr (AP, Reuters)