A Texas woman granted freedom from a life sentence by the former President Barack Obama is going right back to jail after she violated the terms of her release.
In 2006, Carol Denise Richardson was sentenced to life in prison for possessing 50 grams or more of cocaine with a presumed intent to distribute.
But during President Obama’s waning years in the Oval Office, he granted clemency to a record high 1,927 criminals, most of whom had committed nonviolent drug-related offenses. And, in 2016, Richardson became a beneficiary of the mass pardoning.
But now, less than a year later, she will be returning to federal prison after violating the terms of her release, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. According to the Houston Chronicle, Richardson was arrested for theft in Pasadena, a suburb in the Houston area, as well as violating other conditions of her 10-year supervised release. She was sentenced to 14 months in prison by Judge Keith Ellison -- the same judge, in fact, who had given her a life sentence back in 2006.
Along with the theft charge, Richardson had violated four other terms of her release, according to acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez. Richardson’s misconduct included failing to notify her probation officer of the theft, not keeping in direct contact with probation officials, not reporting she abandoned her job, and not being able to be reached by authorities.
Richardson’s lawyer, Mark Anthony Diaz, said in a statement that she stole $60 worth of laundry detergent that she planned to sell to buy drugs, and claimed that the root of her relapse is an ongoing addiction to crack cocaine. While in court, Diaz asked the judge to assign Richardson to mandatory drug rehabilitation during her 14-month sentence.
So far, Richardson is one of only two criminals freed by Obama to end up heading back to prison.
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