"N.F.L. Players to Trump: Here’s Whom You Should Pardon"

The title of this post is the headline of this op-ed in today's New York Times authored by Doug Baldwin, Anquan Boldin, (former OSU Buckeye) Malcolm Jenkins and Benjamin Watson. I recommend the piece in full, and here are extended excerpts:

President Trump recently made an offer to National Football League players like us who are committed to protesting injustice. Instead of protesting, he suggested, we should give him names of people we believe were “unfairly treated by the justice system.”  If he agrees they were treated unfairly, he said, he will pardon them.

To be sure, the president’s clemency power can be a valuable tool for redressing injustice.  Just look at Alice Johnson, age 63, who was serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction until her sentence was commuted by President Trump.  He should be commended for using his clemency power in that case.

But a handful of pardons will not address the sort of systemic injustice that N.F.L. players have been protesting.  These are problems that our government has created, many of which occur at the local level.  If President Trump thinks he can end these injustices if we deliver him a few names, he hasn’t been listening to us.

As Americans, it is our constitutional right to question injustices when they occur, and we see them daily: police brutality, unnecessary incarceration, excessive criminal sentencing, residential segregation and educational inequality.  The United States effectively uses prison to treat addiction, and you could argue it is also our largest mental-health provider. Law enforcement has a responsibility to serve its communities, yet this responsibility has too often not met basic standards of accountability....

President Trump could help.  He could use his powers, including the clemency power, to make a real dent in the federal prison population.  People like Alice Johnson, for example, should not be given de facto life sentences for nonviolent drug crimes in the first place.  The president could stop that from happening by issuing a blanket pardon for people in that situation who have already served long sentences.

Of the roughly 185,000 people locked up in federal prisons, about 79,000 are there for drug offenses of some kind — and 13.5 percent of them have sentences of 20 years or more.  Imagine how many more Alice Johnsons the president could pardon if he treated the issue like the systemic problem it is, rather than asking professional football players for a few cases.

There is also a systemic problem in federal prison involving the elderly, who by next year will make up 28 percent of the federal prison population. Releasing these prisoners would pose little to no risk to society.  And yet from 2013 to 2017, the Bureau of Prisons approved only 6 percent of roughly 5,400 “compassionate release” applications.  About half of those applications were for people who had been convicted of nonviolent fraud or drug offenses.  Of those denied release, 266 died in custody. 

President Trump could order the release of any drug offender over the age of 60 whose conviction is not recent.  That would be the morally right thing to do.

Apart from using the pardon power, there are policies the president and the attorney general could implement to help.  For instance, they could eliminate life without parole for nonviolent offenses.  Currently, more than half of those sentenced to die in federal prison are there for nonviolent offenses, and 30 percent of people sentenced to life (or de facto life) are there for a nonviolent drug crimes. Compare that with the state level: Only 2 percent of those sentenced to life (or de facto life) are there for drug offenses....

President Trump, please note: Our being professional athletes has nothing to do with our commitment to fighting injustice.  We are citizens who embrace the values of empathy, integrity and justice, and we will fight for what we believe is right.  We weren’t elected to do this.  We do it because we love this country, our communities and the people in them. This is our America, our right.

We intend to continue to challenge and encourage all Americans to remember why we are here in this world.  We are here to treat one another with the kindness and respect every human being deserves. And we hope our elected officials will use their power to do the same.

A few of many recent related posts about recent Trumpian clemency activity:

• As Kim Kardashian heads to White House, I hope she advocates for many federal offenders excessively sentenced 
• Kimme’s accomplishment: Prez Trump commutes LWOP sentence of Alice Johnson!!
• Prez Trump reportedly "obsessed" with pardons and "may sign a dozen or more in the next two months"
• "Kim Kardashian West pushes White House for more drug sentence commutations"
• Prez Trump now says he is looking at "3,000 names" for possible clemency and will seek more 
• Any suggestions for Prez Trump's "growing list of potential pardons or commutations"? 
• "Trump asks for clemency names and lists promptly arrive at White House" 
• Former US Pardon Attorney explains why "Trump’s pardons are really not out of the ordinary" 
• Another notable report on clemency suggesting Prez Trump will be "pardoning a lot of people — pardons that even Obama wouldn’t do"