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Pauline K. Blake, a West Valley City woman who was serving a 24-year drug sentence in federal prison, was released last month after President Barack Obama shaved about a decade off her term through a commutation grant.
Anthony Fridleifson, another Utahn doing time for drug-related crimes, will have to stay put for a while. After more than a decade behind bars, he was hoping to get out soon, but his request that his 15-year sentence be shortened was denied on Jan. 6. No reason for the rejection was given.
David Andrew Mortensen, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2008 to possessing more than 50 grams of methamphetamine in a Salt Lake City hotel room, hasn't heard yet whether his request for a reduced sentence will be granted.
For federal inmates who have applied for presidential clemency, the clock is still ticking. Obama leaves office on Friday and prisoners and their advocates are hoping for more rounds of commutations.
"Whatever your belief is about punishment, you have to ask what is the goal of more punishment at this point," said Jeff Corey, a Salt Lake City attorney who represented Fridlefison for free in his clemency bid.
Corey is disappointed that Fridleifson's commutation request was rejected and he is concerned that some inmates might get overlooked in the rush to deal with all the pending petitions.
"There are a lot of good candidates," he said.
Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants executive clemency power to the president. Only federal criminal offenses are eligible for a presidential pardon, commutation of sentence, reprieve or remission of a fine or restitution.
All requests for executive clemency for federal offenses are directed to the Office of the Pardon Attorney for investigation and preparation of the Department of Justice's recommendation to the president.
In 2014, the Justice Department announced an initiative to encourage qualified federal inmates to petition to have their sentences commuted by the president. Under the initiative, the department prioritizes clemency applications from inmates who meet all of the following factors:
• They are currently serving a federal sentence in prison and, by operation of law, likely would have received a substantially lower sentence if convicted of the same offenses today;
• They are nonviolent, low-level offenders without significant ties to large-scale criminal organizations, gangs or cartels;
• They have served at least 10 years of their sentence;
• They do not have a significant criminal history;
• They have demonstrated good conduct in prison; and
• They have no history of violence prior to or during their current term of imprisonment.
As of Dec. 31, Obama had commuted the sentences of 1,176 individuals and granted 148 pardons, according to statistics from the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
On Tuesday, he issued 209 more commutations, including one inmate convicted in Utah. He also issued 64 pardons, which included one prisoner convicted in Utah.
During his two terms as president, Obama has granted clemency to a total of 14 people convicted in federal court in Utah, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
As of Tuesday, Obama had issued 1,385 commutations, which include 504 life terms, and 212 pardons. His sentence commutations are more than the combined total of the commutations issued by the previous 12 presidents, White House counsel Neil Eggleston said.
After Obama issued 231 grants of clemency on Dec. 19, Eggleston wrote in a news release that "the common thread of rehabilitation" underlies each clemency recipient's story.
"For the commutation recipient, it is the story of an individual who has made the most of his or her time in prison, by participating in educational courses, vocational training, and drug treatment," Eggleston said. "These are the stories that demonstrate the successes that can be achieved — by both individuals and society — in a nation of second chances."
At the end of 2016, 2,154 pardon petitions and 13,568 commutation petitions were pending. A dozen of those pending requests for shorter sentences were from inmates represented by attorneys recruited by the Utah Federal Defender's Office to assist them without pay. (The number of other prisoners convicted in federal court in Utah who have filed their petitions directly to the Office of the Pardon Attorney was not available).
According to Clemency Project 2014, more than 36,000 federal prisoners have requested volunteer assistance with commutation requests. The Washington, D.C.-based organization — a group of lawyers and advocates that recruits and trains attorneys to assist prisoners at no cost with their petitions — says a "painstaking review" of 35,500 of those requests show the overwhelming majority did not meet the criteria listed by the Department of Justice.
Cynthia Roseberry, the organization's project manager, said the requests that fall squarely in the criteria generally are from nonviolent drug offenders who likely would have received a shorter prison term if they were sentenced today. She said that it is apparent from the criteria that Obama has balanced public safety with economic impact.
"We are better stewards of tax dollars when we don't incarcerate people who don't need to be incarcerated," Roseberry said.
More than 2,500 petitions, including about half of the 1,176 commutations granted through the end of 2016, were submitted through Clemency Project 2014, Roseberry said earlier this month. She was hopeful many more would be acted on this week.
Before the latest round of presidential clemency, Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and former federal judge, had said he wouldn't be surprised to see a number of petitions acted on in the last days of Obama's term.
"Historically, when a president is leaving office and a new president is coming to town, it's often been an occasion for a number of pardons and commutations being granted," he said.
Cassell — who says the 2014 criteria for deciding who gets clemency are good — has written letters supporting presidential clemency for two defendants he sentenced to mandatory life terms while on the federal bench from 2002 to 2007.
One was Joe R. Alvardo, who was convicted of methamphetamine-related charges in 2004. The Ogden man, who once had no chance of ever leaving prison, was granted a commutation last year and is now slated for release on Aug. 3, 2018.
The other was Weldon Angelos, a Utah music producer who was found guilty of gun and drug charges in 2003. Angelos was never granted clemency but did receive an immediate sentence reduction in May.
There is no parole in the federal system, which means offenders serve out their entire term, minus any "good time" credit they earn for their behavior in prison. There is no possibility of parole for lifers.
Blake, now 51, was arrested in 2000 at a lab in a Salt Lake City building, where police found chemicals and other items associated with methamphetamine production and use. She was found guilty of six drug-related felonies and originally sentenced to 210 months behind bars, a "downward departure" from the federal sentencing guideline range.
In 2004, Blake was resentenced to 292 months after prosecutors successfully challenged the departure at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She was released from a federal prison on Dec. 1.
Fridleifson said in his clemency petition that he has turned his life around in federal prison.
"If I am granted clemency it will give me a second chance to be successful in life," he wrote in a letter included in his commutation petition. "I will not do drugs again because my grandkids, daughter needs me and I want to be with them watch them grow up and I want to buy a house."
Fridleifson concluded: "p.s. One last thing. Prison taught me that I don't want to ever come back. It's really that bad in prison."
Corey, Fridleifson's attorney, said the 42-year-old man was a "minion" whose involvement in a drug conspiracy consisted of street-level distribution of methamphetamine a few times in December 2005. The petition also says Fridleifson was productive in prison, completing 23 educational courses and successfully completing a program to break his addiction to drugs.
"I think he's incredibly deserving [of clemency]," Corey said. "What he did was so long ago and he's paid a huge price for it and he's done everything asked of him."
Although he won't be getting out immediately, Fridleifson might not have much longer to wait for freedom. The Federal Bureau of Prison has a projected release date of Oct. 15, 2018, which includes credit for good time.
Mortensen, an addict who was trying to feed his habit at the time of his arrest, also has turned his life around, according to his attorney, Shane Hillman. He said the 56-year-old has gotten off drugs and has been offered his old job back when he gets out of prison.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC