After former President Barack Obama commuted his sentence, Robert M. Gill finds himself back in prison after police officials arrested him for carrying more than two pounds of cocaine after a high-speed car chase. Gill, a Texas native, was sentenced for life on drug charges; however, Obama commuted his sentence. He had been in prison since 1990 for selling heroin and cocaine. Together with other non-violent federal convicts, Gill’s sentence was commuted by Obama in 2015.
Spending eight years in office, Obama commuted 1,715 federal sentences, a number higher than any other president attained, Time reported. According to court papers, Gill went to a food market parking lot after meeting with his probation officers. He was able to purchase over two pounds of cocaine. The 68-year-old convict met an individual who handed him a black bag that he placed inside his vehicle.
Further narrated by NY Post, a sheriff’s deputy riding an unmarked vehicle attempted to stop Gill. However, the latter had already set off and, following a high-speed car chase, crashed into another vehicle through which the officials were able to block him off and his car. With cocaine found in the backpack, Gill was placed under arrest. Gill “related that he was going to sell the cocaine to make money and would be paying a female $26,000 for the cocaine,” the papers stated. Attorney Ronald Schmidt, who assisted Gill when Obama commuted his sentence was “disappointed” upon knowing of his recent arrest.
Obama commuted Gill’s sentence and signed his release because the former president believed he had “demonstrated the potential to turn your life around… Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity.” Even Gill’s prison warden stood witness that he was already “reformed and rehabilitated” and that he no longer posed threats to the outside world. Gill is currently charged with drug possession with intent to sell/distribute at least 500 grams cocaine and is held without bail. If convicted, he is facing a 40-year sentence in prison.
