Texas Brothers Will No Longer Serve Life Sentence for Drug Ring

In 1999, Houstonians Ronald Jr. and Corey Blount were sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in federal prison due to their involvement in a drug ring with their uncles. Now, their sentences have been reduced.

Their mother, Ella Blount, told ABC 13, “They know they did wrong…The crime, you have to pay for. I just don’t think they should’ve had life sentences.”

Though he was the youngest in the drug ring, Corey Blount was pointed out as the leader of the group. He will now serve a 30-year sentence while his brother, Ronald Jr., will get out around the end of the year.

Eyewitness News legal analyst Joel Androphy explains that Obama recently commuted their sentences, along with 100 other federal inmates, to show that the president acknowledges sometimes the justice system doesn’t work out in the best way.

Androphy said, “What Obama has done is no different than what the Bushes did, what Reagan did, what other presidents have done. He was trying to give people an opportunity to have a second chance in life. Maybe because they had poor representation. Maybe because the laws and sentences were too strict.”

It’s worth noting that in order to be considered for this sentence reduction, inmates must not have committed violent crimes.