New crack guidelines means Willie Mays Aikens gets to go home

As detailed in this article from the Kansas City Star, "former Royals standout Willie Mays Aikens is scheduled to be released from federal prison today, and he could be at a Kansas City halfway house as early as this evening."  Here are more details from the article (which has more than a few legal errors):

Aikens, prisoner 01732-031 at the federal correctional institution in Jesup, Ga., was sentenced to more than 20 years for crack cocaine distribution, bribery and gun charges under mandatory sentencing guidelines in 1994....

Three months ago, Congress approved new guidelines and made them retroactive — making Aikens one of about 20,000 inmates eligible for early release. Laine Cardarella, a federal public defender, presented Aikens’ case in federal court last month and argued successfully to end his prison sentence with time served.

Aikens, 53, said he has lost 80 pounds in prison, and is close to his playing weight of 220 pounds. “There’s no doubt I’m in better health,” he said. “I’m in a better frame of mind. I have a spiritual life now that I didn’t have before. I just look forward to being able to get out of prison and go out with those things and be able to live my life like I’m supposed to live it.”

Aikens is scheduled to undergo counseling and spend 90 to 120 days at the halfway house in Kansas City before his full release. After that, he’s expected to return to his hometown of Seneca, S.C., to be with friends and family....

In March 1994, Aikens was arrested at his Kansas City home and charged with selling crack cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was later indicted on four counts of selling crack and was sentenced in December to the maximum sentence of 15 years, eight months. The judge also imposed a consecutive five-year term because Aikens allegedly had a loaded gun in the room where he sold the crack.

While in federal prison in Atlanta, Aikens wrote President Clinton for a pardon, but that request was never answered. Aikens has indicated he would like to find a job in baseball when he’s fully free, and would be willing to do speaking engagements, coaching, scouting, “whatever position that they have open for me and what they want me to do.”