Prof. Murray Interviewed on MPR About Obama's Commuted Sentence for Client

Professor JaneAnne Murray was interviewed by Jon Collins on MPR about the Clemency Project she has been supervising at the school since late 2014, representing non-violent, low-level drug offenders in their applications for clemency from President Obama. On August 3rd, the President granted 214 clemencies, the biggest in one day since President Coolidge, and one of those grants included Bernard Gibson Sr., one of the first of Murray's clients in the project. Professor Murray's law firm is counsel of record and assisting her on the representation was David Blevins ('15). Noting that one of the criteria for clemency under this initiative is that the inmate's sentence would be lower today by operation of law or policy, Murray noted "[t]here are thousands of inmates who have fallen through these cracks, the victims of punitive policies from the '80s and the '90s who would not benefit from all the retroactive changes that have been made in the ensuing decades." Commenting on whether the Administration can redress the injustices of past sentencing policies, Murray added, "[i]t's never going to be able to address the massive need that's there. That's why we need Congress to step in and . . . more systematic efforts to ensure that these individuals aren't forgotten."