If the prisoner's court that originally convicted him granted a resentencing on appeal, or his parole board said so, or the governor of his state agreed and granted a commutation, yes.
But this is Big Dog Cracker-Buster Osagyefo Paramount Chief and Dear Leader Reichsfuehrer Barack I Obama just saying so on his own motion, to epater les bourgeoises crackas.
That's different. It's like my giving Jesse James an unearned pardon because he was a white boy.
Jesse James formented a revolt and killed people.
Federal case. No governors involved. And only the president has power of pardon in federal cases. Similarly, president has no power of pardon over state cases.
Like him or not, he’s the President. And the President has the power to issue pardons. Thats part of the deal. And if he wants to let out some small time drug dealer after 20 years in prison, I don’t have a problem with it.
He was convicted in federal court, not state court, so none of those things could have happened-- a federal judge can only reduce a sentence within 14 days after it was imposed, or if the prosecutor requests it on grounds of the defendants' cooperation with other prosecutions; there is no such thing as parole in federal cases; and state governors cannot pardon federal convicts. For federal prisoners, it's a presidential pardon or nothing.