President Obama Commutes Sentences Of Four Chicago Men
(CBS) -- President Obama on Friday granted 95 Christmastime commutations and two pardons -- the largest single day grant of clemency of his presidency.
He commuted the sentences of four Chicago men.
WBBM's Steve Miller has the story of one.
"Justice has come after 23 years," says Marsha Mills, the mother of 46-year-old inmate Alton Mills.
He has been in prison for the past 23 years for distributing crack cocaine on the South Side.
And the federal judge who sentenced him criticized the mandatory sentencing guidelines that made him impose a life sentence. Mills had only two relatively minor offenses on the books before the drug conviction in the early-1990s.
Mills' mother Marsha says she is happy and relieved that President Obama has commuted the sentence.
"It's good to know he will be coming home, and then I won't have to worry like I have worried for 23 years," she says.
Alton Mills' release is set for a year from now.