The press is all a buzz about President Obama's commutation of Chelsey Manning's prison sentence (for leaking classified information). What has flown under the radar among Obama's commutations is his commutation of Arboleda Ortiz's Atkins-related death penalty to life without the possibility of parole. I have previously refrained from commenting on this case given that I provided expert declarations for Mr. Ortiz's defense team. In fact, this was my first ever Atkin's case. Prior FYI posts re: Ortiz can be found here.
A brief ABA Journal article about this commutation can be found here. It is my understanding that this was the first such presidential grant since 1999. I will provide more details as they become available.
