On December 19, 2016, the White House announced that President Obama had granted clemency to an additional 231 federal inmates bringing his total to more than 1,000 during his terms in office. Among the current group is Jonathan Rodrico Carter who had been sentenced in federal court in Alabama in 2006 to life in prison for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. In conjunction with Clemency Project 2014, a volunteer coalition of more than 1,000 lawyers nationwide under the auspices of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the ACLU, the ABA, and Mothers Against Mandatory Minimums, Carter Ledyard’s Clemency Project pro bono team of associates Melissa J. Erwin, Alexander G. Malyshev, Matthew B. James, and Jacob H. Nemon, supervised by white-collar co-chair, Michael Shapiro, reviewed Mr. Carter’s clemency petition and recommended that it be approved by the United States Department of Justice and the President. Carter Ledyard is gratified to know that the President’s commutation has reduced Mr. Carter’s life sentence so that it will expire in December 2018 and he will be released to a residential drug treatment center. In total, Carter Ledyard’s lawyers reviewed and made recommendations in more than 100 cases, logging more than 600 hours.
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