Kansas City man commuted by Biden for nonviolent drug offense
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — President Joe Biden on Friday commuted the sentences of 11 individuals serving nonviolent drug offenses and signed a proclamation to pardon certain marijuana offenses.
Each of the individuals are serving what the White House called disproportionately long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses and would have been eligible for reduced sentences had they been charged today.
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One of the 11 individuals includes Deondre Cordell Higgins, of Kansas City, Missouri. Higgins was sentenced in August 2011 to life imprisonment for conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base and distribution of cocaine base.
According to the White House, Higgins sentence was commuted to a term of 25 years, leaving intact and in effect all other components of the sentence with the final two years of his incarceration in prerelease custody, to the maximum extent permitted by law.
Biden in October 2022 announced pardons for thousands of individuals who had been convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law.
The other 10 individuals who had their sentences commuted were Felipe Arriaga of Washington, Earlie Deacon Barber of Alabama, James Michael Barber of North Carolina, Anthony Ewing of Georgia, Quittman Andre Goodley of Texas, Leroy Lymons of Florida, Angel Rosario of Pennsylvania, Esaias J. Tucker of Florida, Darryl Allen Winkfield of Georgia and Kenneth Winkler of Indiana.
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The White House said Biden supports efforts to eliminate sentencing disparities between crack cocaine offenses and powder cocaine offenses.
