Climate Chronos

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Clemency of Black Men: Abnormalizing the Normal


“We’re still dealing with slavery in the form of mass incarceration. 
We’re not on a plantation but in a prison.” 
- Fulton Leroy Washington

F. L. Washington, Emancipation Proclamation 2014


Fulton Washington’s story highlights a "normal" in American society, the incarceration of black fathers, a derivative of slavery of the black man.  Here I simply provide a window into the media of a man whose life sentenced was transferred as part of President B. Obama's Clemency Initiative of 2014. Under this new initiative the DOJ invited petitions for commutation of sentence from nonviolent offenders who, among other criteria, likely would have received substantially lower sentences if convicted of the same offenses today. As of January 19, 2017, the President granted commutation of sentence to a total of 1,715 individuals.




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