A drug trafficker has become the first of 775 inmates who had their sentences commuted by President Obama to reject the offer.
Arnold Ray Jones, who has six years of a 20-year sentence left, refused the chance to be released from a low-security prison in Beaumont, Texas, in two years.
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He was jailed in 2002 for drug trafficking and consistently used crack cocaine.
His seemingly odd decision may hinge on the condition that he would have to complete a residential drug treatment program if he accepted Obama’s offer, USA Today reported.
The president commuted the sentences of 102 federal inmates just last week, bringing the total during his administration to 775 – more than any president in nearly half a century.
But the Department of Justice updated its online records, revealing a first under Jones’ name, which read: ‘Condition declined, commutation not effectuated’.