Obama Grants Clemency To Chicago Activist Oscar Lopez Rivera
(CBS) – President Obama is commuting the sentences of dozens more federal inmates, including some with Chicago ties.
During his presidency, Obama has commuted the sentences of more than 1,300 people -- compared to just 61 for President Clinton.
Tuesday, the president shortened sentences for 209 inmates, and pardoned 64 others.
Many of those receiving commuted sentences were serving time for non-violent drug convictions.
A man with Chicago ties, Oscar Lopez Rivera, had his sentence reduced. He was a community organizer in the Humboldt Park neighborhood in the late-1960s.
Lopez Rivera has served more than 30 years of a 75-year sentence. He was charged with taking part in the work of a Puerto Rican nationalist group that took credit for multiple bombings in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the bombings occurred in Chicago.
Lopez Rivera's supporters and family gathered Tuesday after hearing the news.
"There are no words to describe how I'm feeling. I can't find any. It's just a mixture of emotions. I'm excited. I'm happy. I'm crying. There's so many different emotions, because we knew this day would come, but we didn't know when or how," sister Zenaida Lopez says.
Meantime, the creator and star of the Broadway blockbuster "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda, tweeted that he was overjoyed at the move.
The president is expected to pardon and commute the sentences of more people on Thursday. An obvious question is whether Obama will grant clemency to disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The highest-profile commutation Tuesday was a sentence reduction for imprisoned ex-soldier Chelsea Manning.
