WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden made thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia eligible for pardons, the White House said Friday.
Biden also granted clemency to 11 people who are serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
The list receiving clemency includes Deondre Cordell Higgins of Kansas City.
Click here to see the full clemency recipient list
In 2011, Deondre Cordell Higgins, 35, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith to life in federal prison without parole, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
On Sept. 27, 2010, Higgins was found guilty following a bench trial of participating in a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine in Jackson County, Mo., from Jan. 1, 2005, to Nov. 18, 2008. Higgins was also convicted of distributing crack cocaine.
Evidence introduced during the trial indicated that Higgins had hundreds of customers and sold large quantities of crack cocaine. Undercover police detectives purchased crack cocaine from Higgins and several co-defendants. Higgins and coconspirators distributed up to five kilograms of crack cocaine in Jackson County. Higgins also paid prostitutes who worked for him with crack cocaine.
Higgins was the final defendant to be sentenced in the case. Four co-defendants also pleaded guilty to their roles in the drug-trafficking conspiracy.
Higgins Sentence was commuted to a term of 25 years, leaving intact and in effect all other components of the sentence and with the final two years of his incarceration in prerelease custody, to the maximum extent permitted by law, according to the White House.
Biden, in a statement, said his actions would help make the “promise of equal justice a reality.”
-The AP contributed to this report