Passing Sentence

“Kelly Burke took a few labored steps to the witness stand and looked toward a large video screen in a rural Georgia courtroom. There, he saw the face of a man, beamed in from a nearby prison, whom he had sent away 25 years earlier for life without parole. Mr. Burke, a former district attorney, hadn’t seen the man, Jessie Askew Jr., since the sentencing in 1998. He had insisted at the time that Mr. Askew, then 24 years old, deserved to die in prison. On this spring morning in 2023, Mr. Burke planned to tell the court it was the biggest mistake of his career.” NYT (Gift Article): For Decades, He Has Regretted Sending a Man Away for Life. Can He Fix It? “Weakened by cancer and nagged by his conscience, a former Georgia prosecutor wants the courts to reverse the sentence he demanded for a man who didn’t physically harm anyone in his crimes.”

+ “President Biden announced on Friday that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug crimes who are serving far longer sentences than they would receive today.”