Biden reduces sentence of Kansas City man facing life in prison on cocaine-related charges
President Joe Biden on Friday issued a federal commutation to reduce the sentence of a Kansas City man who was facing life in prison for distributing cocaine.
Deondre Cordell Higgins from Kansas City was one of 11 people who had their sentences commuted by the Democratic president as part of a year-end clemency announcement centered on people with non-violent drug offenses.
Biden “is using his authority under the Constitution to uphold the values of redemption and rehabilitation by commuting the sentences of 11 fellow Americans who are serving unduly long sentences for non-violent drug offenses,” the White House said in a news release.
Higgins was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 after being found guilty of a conspiracy to distribute “crack” cocaine in Jackson County from 2005 to 2008.
Biden’s clemency reduced Higgins’ sentence to 25 years. The order also enables him to be in “prerelease custody” during the final two years of his incarceration. Prerelease custody could include a community correctional facility and is meant to give a person time to prepare for reentry into the community.
The president also announced on Friday that he was signing a measure to pardon certain marijuana-related offenses, which builds on his call last year for governors of all 50 states to pardon all prior state offenses for simple possession of marijuana and a 2022 federal proclamation that pardoned people convicted of simple possession.
McClatchy’s Michael Wilner contributed to this story.
