BANGOR, Maine — President Barack Obama shortened the prison sentences for 153 convicts, mainly low-level drug offenders, and pardoned 78 others — including two men from Maine, the White House said on Monday.
The Mainers who were granted pardons were Robert Spencer Baines of South Thomaston and Francis Joseph O’Hara Sr. of Camden.
Baines was sentenced in July 1986 to six years in prison for conspiracy to possess and possession with intent to distribute more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, according to the White House.
O’Hara received a six-month sentence in September 1991 for conspiracy to restrain, suppress and eliminate competition by rigging bids, and conspiracy with others to knowingly and willfully make and use false documents containing false statements in matters within the jurisdiction of the Defense Personnel Support Command.
In addition to his prison term, O’Hara was ordered to undergo
two years of supervised release and pay a $200,000 fine and $950,000 in restitution.
In the years leading up to his conviction, O’Hara was working for National Sea Products, a fishing company founded by his father in 1940.
O’Hara was the subject of an Aug. 26, 1988, Bangor Daily News article about the end of Rockland’s groundfish industry in the wake of a 1984 World Court decision that set the ocean boundary for fishing at a point halfway between U.S. and Canadian territory, ignoring traditional fishing grounds and deep-water areas.
As a result of that decision, fishing grounds off Grand Manan and the Southwest Bank traditionally fished by Mainers become off limits. Maine fishing companies were left with Cashes Ledge, which at the time already was overfished.
In the article, O’Hara said that business became so bad that he and several other East Coast fishing companies were convicted of a $75 million scheme to fix prices on Department of Defense contracts for fish.
During his tenure, Obama has commuted the sentences of 1,176 federal prisoners, the White House said, as part of a push to reduce the number of people serving long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
Monday’s commutations and pardons were the most acts of clemency in a single day by any U.S. president, the White House reported.
In 2014, Obama announced he would use his clemency powers to reduce sentences he saw as overly harsh. That came after criminal justice bills aimed at non-violent drug offenders stalled in Congress.
In addition to commuting sentences, Obama has pardoned 148 people in total.
White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said they were people who led “productive and law-abiding” lives and contributed to their communities after being convicted.
Eggleston said in a blog post released by the White House that he expected Obama would issue more commutations and pardons before leaving office in January, but he said only Congress could make broader changes to the criminal justice system.
Reuters contributed to this report.