SHARANDA JONES' LIFE SENTENCE COMMUTED BY OBAMA; WHAT ABOUT BLACK MEN??

SHARANDA JONES' LIFE SENTENCE COMMUTED BY OBAMA:

BUT WHAT ABOUT BLACK MEN??

After serving 16 years in Federal Prison as a first-time, non-violent drug offender, SHARANDA JONES 48, was finally released from Incarceration by Pres OBAMA.

Ms Jones was given a life sentence under former President BILL CLINTON'S Mandatory Drug Sentencing Guidelines which targeted Sellers of CRACK Cocaine versus sellers of Powdered Cocaine.

Since Pres OBAMA has known about SHARANDA'S sentence for 7 years, why is he just NOW releasing her?

And what about all the BLACK Men who were also thrown into Federal prisons under BILL CLINTON'S Mandatory Sentencing guidelines?

Why does it appear that prior to the 2016 election, DEMOCRATS are only trying to help BLACK Women and not BLACK Men?

~ President Obama commutes sentences of 95 federal drug offenders

President Obama commuted the sentences of 95 drug offenders Friday, more than double the number he granted this summer, in an effort to give relief to drug offenders who were harshly sentenced in the nation’s war on drugs.

It is the third time this year that the president has used his unique clemency power to release federal drug offenders, whose harsh sentences have contributed to the phenomenon of mass incarceration.

The commutations are a centerpiece of the president’s effort to make the most significant changes­ in the nation’s criminal justice system in decades. He and former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. have spoken passionately about the need to fix what they say is a broken system — one they argue has subjected too many nonviolent inmates to decades behind bars, disproportionately hurting minority communities.

“I commuted the sentences of 95 men and women who had served their debt to society, another step forward in upholding our ideals of justice and fairness,” Obama said.

One of the inmates Obama granted clemency was Sharanda Jones, a 48-year-old Texas woman who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a single cocaine offense.

She was a first-time, nonviolent offender.

The Washington Post highlighted Jones’s story in July as an example of the tens of thousands of inmates in crowded federal prisons who received severe mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses­ during the crack-cocaine epidemic. Jones has spent 16 years behind bars, leaving an 8-year-old daughter to grow up without her mother.

Her daughter, now 24, broke down in tears when she heard that her mother will be coming home April 16.

“I’m so happy,” said Clenesha Garland, who lives in Dallas. “This is the best Christmas present for the rest of my life.”

Brittany Byrd, the Dallas attorney who first heard of Jones’s case when she wrote about Jones for a law school class, filed the clemency petition two years ago that Obama signed.

“Yesterday, Sharanda was set to die in prison as a first-time non­violent offender,” Byrd said. “The president literally saved her life. She has more than paid her debt to society and is truly deserving of the mercy she was given today.”

Byrd said she called Jones from her car with the news shortly before Obama made his announcement.

“You’re coming home!” she told Jones, who is in Carswell women’s prison in Fort Worth.

Byrd said Jones seemed in shock at first. She was quiet on the other end of the line and then started crying softly.

“Thank you, Jesus, thank you,” Jones said on the phone with her attorney. “It’s been so long.”

In spring 2014, then-Attorney General Holder — who once called the harsh mandatory-minimum drug sentences “draconian” — started an initiative to grant clemency to certain nonviolent drug offenders in federal prison.

To qualify, prisoners had to have served at least 10 years of their sentence, and have no significant criminal history and no connection to gangs, cartels or organized crime. They must have demonstrated good conduct in prison. And they also must be inmates who probably would have received a “substantially lower sentence” if convicted of the same offense today.

“This is precisely the kind of case for which our reform efforts are designed,” Holder said in an interview Friday about Jones’s commutation. “We must use our limited resources in more appropriate, more just ways. The president has acted in a significant way today. Now Congress must act and pass meaningful criminal justice reform legislation.”

Lawmakers are debating several bipartisan bills to change sentencing laws.

In his last news conference before leaving for Hawaii for the holidays, Obama said he supported the Senate bill on criminal justice reform and hoped the House would pass a similar piece of legislation.

“There have been sincere negotiations and efforts by Republicans and Democrats to create a criminal justice system that is more fair and even-handed,” Obama said. “There is a good bill in the Senate. My hope is that it gets to the floor and gets paired with a bill in the House.”

After Holder announced the new criteria last year to open up the clemency process to more federal inmates, a massive number — about 33,000 — applied for relief.

The response was overwhelming and enthusiastic and elevated the level of hope in prison that they may not actually die there,” said Julie Stewart, president and founder of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

But it also created a logistical nightmare for a new group of private attorneys and law school students that had formed, with the encouragement of the Justice Department, to help find inmates who met the criteria set out by Holder.

The group, called Clemency Project 2014, includes Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Bar Association and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The extensive number of applications and the complicated review process by the outside lawyers, the Justice Department and the White House has slowed the effort, advocates say.

It took about a year for the group to get organized and train lawyers for the massive effort, included locating old legal documents, contacting prosecutors and judges who imposed the sentences, and trying to get pre-sentencing reports and sentencing transcripts, some of which had not been transcribed.

Of the 33,000 inmates who applied and asked for help from attorneys, the clemency project weeded out about 18,000 applications that did not meet the criteria, according to Cynthia W. Roseberry, the project manager.

James E. Felman, an attorney and one of the leaders of CP14 who visited prisons to help find inmates who met the criteria, said the process is much more streamlined now. 

The group of lawyers has sent 263 petitions to the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney to be considered.

Of the commutations Obama granted on Friday, 27 were prepared by pro-bono lawyers across the country and students in 24 law schools working with the clemency project.

Once the pardon attorney reviews the petitions, she sends them to Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates to be reviewed.

“While the clemency initiative is just one prong in the larger effort to reform sentencing practices, it is one to which we are strongly committed,” Yates said in a statement Friday.

Yates then sends the petitions and her recommendations to White House Counsel Neil Eggleston. More than 9,000 clemency petitions are pending, either at the Justice Department or the White House.

“It remains the case that with a year left in his term, the president has already commuted the sentences of more individuals than the past five presidents combined, and we expect that the president will grant more commutations and pardons to deserving individuals in his final year in office,” Eggleston said Friday.

But several advocates interviewed Friday said that the comparison with other presidents is not a meaningful one because no other president has launched a clemency initiative to grant an early release to drug offenders who meet criteria laid out by the Justice Department.

NYU Law Professor Rachel Barkow, an advocate for clemency reform, called the current clemency process with so many prisoner petitions backlogged “a disaster.”

“Once the president lays out the criteria for the cases­ he wants to grant clemency, the measure of success for that program is: Have you processed all the people who meet those criteria?” she said.

By the end of this year, Obama will have commuted the sentences of 184 federal inmates.

“American presidents have had the power to show mercy since the founding of our republic,” said Stewart, of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. “President Obama is the first president in decades to use it as the Founders intended. For that reason, we commend him for showing more mercy than his predecessors. But his work is not done.”

Sources:  Washington Post, Clemency Report, YouTube

EDWARD SNOWDEN vs MIKE ROGERS: I Trust SNOWDEN! He Deserves Some Level Of Clemency!

#EdwardSnowdenMikeRogersNSA

The whole world now wants America to Pardon/ Forgive NSA Whistleblower EDWARD SNOWDEN for alerting American Citizens that Our Civil Liberties & PRIVACY were being severely Violated by our Elected Officials (Pres OBAMA & CONGRESS).

I too believe Mr SNOWDEN deserves some level of Clemency for his Courageous act.

Initially I judged Mr SNOWDEN as a TRAITOR.

However as I researched the FACTS of his case, I learned this Young Man is indeed more of a PATRIOT than a TRAITOR.

Why??

Here are four reasons:

**1) Mr SNOWDEN did NOT Hire himself as a NSA employee, the Federal Gov't did.

**2) Mr SNOWDEN did NOT conduct his Background Check, the Federal Gov't did.

**3) Mr SNOWDEN did NOT grant himself a Security Clearance, the Federal Gov't did.

**4) Mr SNOWDEN did NOT Violate our Civil Liberties & PRIVACY, the Federal Gov't did.

Thus how can EDWARD SNOWDEN be a Criminal??

Mr SNOWDEN knew he was being Hired to be a HACKER for the Federal Gov't but he thought he was just being Hired to HACK into the Personal Info of Real Suspected TERRORISTS.

Not SPY on Innocent American Citizens WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE!

Not SPY on Innocent American Citizens WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE for POLITICAL Reasons, or just to keep entire Communities of Human Beings in BONDAGE!

The Federal Gov't Hired Mr SNOWDEN.....offered him a Great Salary....and in exchange for keeping that Great Salary, they expected him to Betray the American People by HACKING into their Personal Lives WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE!

Please understand I am Not Opposed to the U.S. Federal Gov't using Broad Surveillance Powers Legally for authentic NATIONAL SECURITY purposes because I too want to be SAFE from TERRORISM.

I am Only Opposed to the U.S. Federal Gov't ABUSING its Broad Surveillance Powers to Violate the same U.S. Constitution its ELECTED Officials have vowed to uphold, for POLITICS & other Personal reasons!

So in essence the Federal Gov't is using the NSA NOT to track down Real Suspected TERRORISTS as Congressman MIKE ROGERS proclaims.

And why is the Federal Gov't COLLECTING DATA & INFO on Each American Citizen??

It's being stored at a huge Compound in UTAH but Why??

Federal Gov't Officials are using the NSA to SPY on ALL American Citizens WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE just because they Can, NOT because they need to!

i.e., "Big Brother" Is Here!

This is beyond WRONG & ILLEGAL!

Another example of Federal Gov't ABUSE is the IRS targeting Innocent American Citizens for their RELIGIOUS Beliefs & POLITICAL Affiliations.

Or......

Using the IRS to RETALIATE against Innocent American Citizens.

Both actions are also WRONG & ILLEGAL!!

So do I strongly believe EDWARD SNOWDEN is a necessary, Courageous Young Whistleblower who deserves some level of Clemency??

YES!!

FYI:

I WILL NEVER TRUST CONGRESSMAN MIKE ROGERS (R-MI) AGAIN.

Why??

One word.....DETROIT!








"Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower"


Seven months ago, the world began to learn the vast scope of the National Security Agency’s reach into the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the globe, as it collects information about their phone calls, their email messages, their friends and contacts, how they spend their days and where they spend their nights.

The public learned in great detail how the agency has exceeded its mandate and abused its authority, prompting outrage at kitchen tables and at the desks of Congress, which may finally begin to limit these practices.

The revelations have already prompted two federal judges to accuse the N.S.A. of violating the Constitution (although a third, unfortunately, found the dragnet surveillance to be legal).

A panel appointed by President Obama issued a powerful indictment of the agency’s invasions of privacy and called for a major overhaul of its operations.

All of this is entirely because of information provided to journalists by Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who stole a trove of highly classified documents after he became disillusioned with the agency’s voraciousness. Mr. Snowden is now living in Russia, on the run from American charges of espionage and theft, and he faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.

Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community.

Mr. Snowden is currently charged in a criminal complaint with two violations of the Espionage Act involving unauthorized communication of classified information, and a charge of theft of government property. Those three charges carry prison sentences of 10 years each, and when the case is presented to a grand jury for indictment, the government is virtually certain to add more charges, probably adding up to a life sentence that Mr. Snowden is understandably trying to avoid.

The president said in August that Mr. Snowden should come home to face those charges in court and suggested that if Mr. Snowden had wanted to avoid criminal charges he could have simply told his superiors about the abuses, acting, in other words, as a whistle-blower.

“If the concern was that somehow this was the only way to get this information out to the public, I signed an executive order well before Mr. Snowden leaked this information that provided whistle-blower protection to the intelligence community for the first time,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference. “So there were other avenues available for somebody whose conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government actions.”

In fact, that executive order did not apply to contractors, only to intelligence employees, rendering its protections useless to Mr. Snowden. More important, Mr. Snowden told The Washington Post earlier this month that he did report his misgivings to two superiors at the agency, showing them the volume of data collected by the N.S.A., and that they took no action. (The N.S.A. says there is no evidence of this.) That’s almost certainly because the agency and its leaders don’t consider these collection programs to be an abuse and would never have acted on Mr. Snowden’s concerns.

In retrospect, Mr. Snowden was clearly justified in believing that the only way to blow the whistle on this kind of intelligence-gathering was to expose it to the public and let the resulting furor do the work his superiors would not. Beyond the mass collection of phone and Internet data, consider just a few of the violations he revealed or the legal actions he provoked:

■ The N.S.A. broke federal privacy laws, or exceeded its authority, thousands of times per year, according to the agency’s own internal auditor.

■ The agency broke into the communications links of major data centers around the world, allowing it to spy on hundreds of millions of user accounts and infuriating the Internet companies that own the centers. Many of those companies are now scrambling to install systems that the N.S.A. cannot yet penetrate.

■ The N.S.A. systematically undermined the basic encryption systems of the Internet, making it impossible to know if sensitive banking or medical data is truly private, damaging businesses that depended on this trust.

■ His leaks revealed that James Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, lied to Congress when testifying in March that the N.S.A. was not collecting data on millions of Americans. (There has been no discussion of punishment for that lie.)

■ The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rebuked the N.S.A. for repeatedly providing misleading information about its surveillance practices, according to a ruling made public because of the Snowden documents. One of the practices violated the Constitution, according to the chief judge of the court.

■ A federal district judge ruled earlier this month that the phone-records-collection program probably violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. He called the program “almost Orwellian” and said there was no evidence that it stopped any imminent act of terror.

The shrill brigade of his critics say Mr. Snowden has done profound damage to intelligence operations of the United States, but none has presented the slightest proof that his disclosures really hurt the nation’s security. Many of the mass-collection programs Mr. Snowden exposed would work just as well if they were reduced in scope and brought under strict outside oversight, as the presidential panel recommended.

When someone reveals that government officials have routinely and deliberately broken the law, that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government. That’s why Rick Ledgett, who leads the N.S.A.’s task force on the Snowden leaks, recently told CBS News that he would consider amnesty if Mr. Snowden would stop any additional leaks.

And it’s why President Obama should tell his aides to begin finding a way to end Mr. Snowden’s vilification and give him an incentive to return home.


Sources: AP, CBS News, CNN, NY Times, Russia Today, The Guardian, Youtube

Haley Barbour: God Bless You! Pardoned Inmates & Forgiveness

When former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour recently Pardoned 200 Convicted Felons AFTER they Served their time for Criminal Acts, he demonstrated unbelievable examples of Courage, Forgiveness & Humanity.

In fact it took a lot of Courage for Haley Barbour to do what he did for those Inmates because too often Our Society treats Inmates like Animals.

Including many Inmates who have been Wrongfully Convicted & Wrongfully Imprisoned.

And while I empathize with families of the Victims, I can't forget that more than 50% of ALL Currently Imprisoned Men in American Prisons are BLACK & Latino Human Beings.

Since the Mississippi Supreme Court found NO Error in Haley Barbour's decision to Legally Pardon those 200 Convicted Felons, why continue all of this drama?

The Media should STOP wasting valuable time & resources Bashing Haley Barbour for doing something that was Completely Legal.

Considering the fact that each of those 200 Convicted Felons Served at least 20 Years in Prison, I ask again why is the Media choosing to remain focused on this situation?

Instead the Media should be focusing its attention on why 50% of BLACK & Latino Men living in this Country are Still being Racially Profiled, Wrongfully Convicted & Wrongfully Imprisoned in the 21st Century.

Society is always talking about how Many Southern WHITE People are Racist but than when they display Benevolent, Humane Behavior towards BLACKS & Latinos, we want to Bash or Shun them.

What about those hundreds of Wall Street Executives who Stole BILLIONS from the Federal Government from that TARP money?

Why isn't the Media jumping up & down over that Atrocity???

Let it Go!

Stop Hating!

God Bless You Haley Barbour!






Docs show murderers got special treatment from governor, wife


Investigative documents obtained by CNN show that former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, his wife and his staff may have given preferential treatment to two of the convicted murderers who were among the more than 200 former and current inmates he pardoned in January.

According to the documents compiled by the office of Mississippi's attorney general, the state's former first lady, Marsha Barbour, apparently called a car dealership regarding the purchase of two vehicles for two convicted murderers -- days before they were pardoned.

The cars were later delivered to the governor's mansion, two days before the men were released.

CNN has also learned that a member of the governor's staff took the same two men, David Gatlin and Charles Hooker, to get their driver's licenses while they were still in state custody, before their pardons were signed and made official.

"Yes, that's true ... I did take some of them," said Barbour's former security chief, Wayland Adams. "I knew that they were going to be paroled. I was assured of that and I just took them to get their driver's licenses.

"I thought that if I went ahead to get them a driver's license it would speed things up on getting them a job. And that was the only reason. I was just trying to help them."

Adams, who retired as security director of the Mississippi governor's mansion when Barbour left office in January, told CNN the former Mississippi governor did not ask him to take Gatlin and Hooker to get their licenses.

"No, I assume full responsibility for it," he said.

Adams admitted his actions were a bit unusual.

State law enforcement experts and legal experts told CNN that while this would be considered preferential treatment for any inmate, no state laws were violated.

"Unless a person has had his or her license revoked ... they are not prohibited from acquiring or renewing a driver's license while incarcerated as long as they had domicile in the state prior to imprisonment," according to a written statement from Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Master Sgt. Johnny Poulos.

Poulos said his department was not aware of any directive from Barbour to provide licenses to the men.

Either way, Randy Walker is furious. Nearly 20 years ago, he survived a gunshot wound to the head by Gatlin moments after Gatlin killed Tammy Ellis, Gatlin's estranged wife. Gatlin admitted he shot her in the head as she held their 6-week-old child in her arms. Police found the infant, still in her arms, alive and covered with blood.

"Where is enough enough?" said Walker, who has recovered from his head wound. "It should be enough that they gave a convicted killer his life back."

During his last days in office in January, Gov. Haley Barbour issued pardons to more than 200 current and former inmates. Most of the pardons were granted to former inmates who had already completed their sentences and were free.

However, some of the prisoners were convicted murderers. Now, the legacy of the once popular two-term governor, who considered running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, is being questioned by some Mississippians.

The pardons were challenged by Mississippi's attorney general, but last week the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the legality of the pardons.

Five of the prisoners -- including Gatlin and Hooker -- worked as trusties as part of a state rehabilitation program that allows model prisoners to work as servants and handymen at the governor's mansion.

They had access to Barbour practically every day, according to people familiar with the program.

Barbour has said he believes the men are no longer a threat, that they are rehabilitated and deserve a second chance at life.

"That's what we as Christians believe. My wife and I are Christians," he told CNN's John King on his show, "John King, USA," weeks after issuing the pardons.

"When we have people who get rehabilitated ... they deserve a second chance.

It's the governor's job and the governor's job alone to let them have a second chance. That's why I'm very comfortable with this."

But no matter how one looks at this story, the benefits these convicted murderers received appear special.

"It's abhorrent that these people would be given this sort of treatment after the crimes they've committed," said Mississippi State Rep. David Baria.

Baria, a Democrat, sponsored several bills to change Mississippi's pardons process. The bills all died in committee last week. He said the victims in the cases have put up with too much already.

"Not only to turn these folks loose but to treat them like kings, essentially -- it's outside the bounds of common decency of what we expect of our government," he told CNN.
Gatlin and Hooker were released on January 8. They both had driver's licenses when they went to Gray Daniels Chevrolet in Jackson, Mississippi, on January 6.

Records show Hooker bought a white 2007 Ford Focus while Gatlin picked up a gray Chevy HHR. Both vehicles were paid for with bank checks from Bank Plus.

Both men put no money down. It remains unclear how the men were able to secure bank checks while still in the custody of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

When reached by CNN at the dealership, the salesman who sold the men the cars refused to comment.
"I am not allowed to speak about any transactions," he said.

But the investigative reports compiled by Mississippi's attorney general's office show that Barbour's wife, Marsha Barbour, aided the transaction.

In the report, the investigator writes, "While at the dealership I spoke briefly with the salesman who stated that Marsha Barbour had contacted him regarding the purchase of vehicles for Hooker and Gatlin."

The details of the conversation were not available and it is not clear exactly what role Marsha Barbour played in the transaction, or the nature of her relationship with the pardoned men.

The report further stated that "the inmates had been brought to the dealership on January 6, 2012, in a black Ford Crown Victoria to complete paperwork for the sale and [the investigator] stated that the prisoners had paid with certified checks issued by Bank Plus."

According to the report, the car salesman also told investigators "he delivered both vehicles to the governor's mansion on the afternoon of January 6, 2012."

When investigators asked Gatlin how he got the car, he allegedly told them, according to the report, "I can't tell you."

When asked about the driver's licenses and the role of Marsha Barbour in the purchase of the cars, a spokeswoman for the former governor said the questions "were based on assumptions of fact which simply are not true."

Spokeswoman Sherry Vance did not elaborate on which aspects of this story were untrue, and has not responded to CNN's questions for clarification.

Walker, the victim who stared down the barrel of Gatlin's gun before he was shot in the head, said he's "baffled" by the allegations and believes Barbour is financially helping the men.

"Was it because he was a trusty at the governor's mansion and he had so much time with Barbour?" he wondered. "It's insane that he would do that. Where's my handout?"
"I mean, I had thousands upon thousands of medical bills that nobody helped me pay.

I'd like to get some of that money back that I wasted because David shot me. I didn't ask for David to come shoot me. Where's my handout?" he asked angrily.

CNN went to Hooker's home in Jackson several times and saw the White Ford Focus mentioned in the state investigator's report parked outside his house, but Hooker did not answer his door or respond to CNN's phone calls.

According to the investigative reports from the Mississippi attorney general's office, Hooker allegedly told investigators that his son helped him buy the vehicle, and that his son had already made three months of car payments for him.

CNN also went to Alabama to try to get Gatlin's side of the story, and found him living in the home of Ernest Jacks. His gray Chevy HHR was in the driveway, but Jacks said Gatlin refused to talk to us.

But Walker has a lot to say. He can barely contain his anger that the man who tried to kill him could get such preferential treatment.

"I've been trying for over two years, since 2009, to get a face to face with Barbour, and never got a phone call back," said Walker. "Gatlin must have made quite the impression on him."


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Sources: CNN, Google Maps

Michael Vick: An Imperfect Human Being Is Forgiven, Time To Move On!

Obama Gives Vick An Early Pardon


Presidents give official pardons at the end other terms in office but it appears that Obama has given an unofficial one to Michael Vick this week. Rumors swirled in Washington and the NFL that the president had given the proverbial thumbs up to the Philadelphia Eagles for picking up Michael Vick right out of jail two years ago. It was finally confirmed on Twitter Monday by Sports Illustrated’s Peter King.

Yes, Obama called Eagle owner Jeffrey Lurie to praise the Eagles for giving Vick a chance. Said too many prisoners never get fair 2d chance.

Read On....http://www.thesource.com/articles/37076/Obama-Gives-Vick-An-Early-Pardon/#




Is It OK To Cheer For Michael Vick?


Michael Vick, the comeback story like no other -- the nation's largest ongoing rehabilitation project not named Sheen -- makes his postseason splash Sunday night.

A bigger audience means more fans than ever face this question: Can I embrace the Philadelphia quarterback's singular talents without getting the blood of past sins on me?

Read on....http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/07/michael.vick/index.html?hpt=C1


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Sources: Atlanta Journal Constitution, CNN, Dallas News, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, The Source, Twitter, White House, Youtube, Google Maps

Asia Bibi Awaits Pardon After Death Sentence For Blasphemy Of Islam

CNN Christian Asia Bibi faces death (blasphemy, 5:51)
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Christian Woman Faces Death For Blasphemy


In early November, in the dusty city of Sheikhupura in Pakistan’s heartland, Asia Bibi, an illiterate Christian woman and mother of five, was sentenced to death by hanging under the country’s blasphemy laws.

Her crime? She allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

Almost immediately, the death sentence unleashed international condemnation, and put pressure on Pakistan’s government to overturn the verdict and amend the country’s blasphemy laws – a holdover from a 19th century penal code designed to protect minority religious sects during British colonial times.

The law was radicalized during the 1980’s under the military dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq. He imposed life sentences, even death, for blasphemy to appease the mullahs and legitimize his grip on power.

Pope Benedict XVI appealed for Clemency but hard-line Islamic groups have threatened civil war if the government pardons Bibi or attempts to amend the law.

Bibi’s husband, 48-year-old Ashiq Masih, is desperate, convinced radical Islamic groups are aiming to kill the family. He has gone into hiding, along with his children, sheltered inside a Christian colony in an outlying district of Sheikhupura. Masih insists his wife was framed, a victim of old score-settling in their village of Ittan Walli, where his family was just one of two Christian families.

Bibi’s lawyer has filed an appeal with the High Court in Lahore and Pakistan’s President Asif Zardari may consider an unconditional Pardon if the appeals process takes too long.

So far, the Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti submitted a report on the case to Zardari. He concluded that the charges were baseless. In an interview with NBC News, he said that Bibi could be released on appeal in the high court. “We should wait for the court proceedings but if the court delays then the president may pardon her on the basis that she is innocent,” he said.

Bhatti is well aware of the possible consequences of an acquittal. Judges have been assassinated for freeing victims and several accused persons have been gunned down inside prisons or outside courtrooms as they walked free.

“We will protect Asia and her entire family,” the minister said. “No harm will come to them.”

Sidra, Bibi’s 18-year-old daughter, takes her younger sisters to the jail every Tuesday to visit their mother. “My mother tells us not to cry and to be strong,” she said. “But now, my mother is crying, so how can we be strong.”

With media reports of a possible pardon for Bibi, hard line Islamic groups have held demonstrations in cities across Pakistan. They’ve warned Zardari of a severe backlash if he commutes her death sentence.

At one rally, organized by “The Movement for the Protection of the Prophet’s Honor” denounced any attempt to change the law. “We are ready to sacrifice our life for the prophet,” they chanted.


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Sources: CNN, Daily Motion, MSNBC, Youtube Google Maps

"Apple" & "Cider" Receive Turkey Pardons From Pres. Obama

Obama Pardons Two Turkeys At White House ceremony


At 21 weeks of age and 45 pounds each, Apple and Cider would normally be prime candidates for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Instead, the two California-born turkeys got a new lease on life Wednesday when President Obama pardoned them in a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House.

"Now for the record, let me say that I feel pretty good to stop at least one shellacking this November," said Obama, referring to the staggering defeat his party suffered in congressional elections this month.

Obama celebrated the 63rd anniversary of the national Thanksgiving turkey presentation by sparing the two birds. Their names were chosen from more than 200 suggestions by California schoolchildren, a White House statement said.

Apple was designated the official national Thanksgiving turkey, and Cider was the alternate.

Obama said the turkeys were among 20,000 born at a Modesto farm last summer chosen to "strut their stuff" in a competition for the presidential pardon.

"It's like a turkey version of 'Dancing with the Stars,' " the president said. "Except the stakes for the contestants were much higher. Only one pair win the prize: life, and an all-expenses trip to Washington."

Two turkeys that "didn't quite make the cut" were delivered to Martha's Table, a local nonprofit organization that serves homeless children and their families, the president said.

Having escaped execution, the two birds will head to George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens for a Christmas display and then live out their days in a specially built enclosure, the White House statement said.

While the tradition of the president receiving a national Thanksgiving turkey began with Harry Truman in 1947, the first official presidential turkey pardon was given in 1989 by George H.W. Bush.


Sources: CNN

A Turkey Named "Courage" Receives Presidential Pardon...Happy Thanksgiving!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sources: MSNBC, McClatchy Newspapers, Under The Dome