Miquelle West was 10 years old when her mother, Michelle West, dropped her off at school. At the time, Miquelle didn’t know that that day would be the last time they’d see each other freely. 

“When my mom went to prison, my world cracked,” Miquelle wrote in a personal essay published on Medium In 2023. “It had always been just me and her.” 

In the three decades since Michelle West was convicted of aiding and abetting a murder, her story has been the subject of profiles in outlets like Truthout, as well as a 2016 documentary produced by Revolt TV. With a sentence of two lifetimes plus 50 years, clemency has been West’s only avenue for ever returning home. 

In January, in one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden commuted West’s sentence, and she could finally reunite with her daughter outside of prison walls for the first time since that school drop-off in 1993. 

West joined nearly 2,500 people to whom Biden also granted clemency. Many of these commutations and pardons highlight some of the unique ways that women enter the criminal legal system. Recent clemency campaigns and initiatives at the state and federal level are dedicated to expediting and improving the pardoning process and have increasingly acknowledged circumstances that disproportionately impact women, such as domestic violence and severe trial sentences. 

A categorical approach

Pardons and commutations fall under the larger umbrella of clemency, which is broadly defined as an overall act of grace and forgiveness. Pardons are the complete forgiveness of a crime, erasing the conviction in the eyes of that state and restoring full citizenship rights. A commutation is a sentence reduction: Sentences can be reduced to time served, enabling incarcerated people with long sentences—including life sentences—to finally return home. 

While the president and state governors can grant clemencies at any time, officials often reserve mass pardons for the end of their term or special holidays. Catherine Sevcenko, senior counsel for the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, argued that the power to grant clemency is severely underutilized and should be exercised more often and more consistently. 

“Clemency should not be a lottery held once every four years but recognized for what it is: a mechanism for correcting the unjust results which our criminal legal system manufactures much too often,” Sevcenko said in a press release about West receiving clemency.  

There has been growing momentum among state and federal officials to improve the clemency process using “categorical clemency.” Under a “categorical approach,” commutations and pardons are granted to individuals sentenced for certain offenses. In particular, issues that disproportionately impact women and funnel them into the criminal legal system with severe sentences are being prioritized and sustaining new attention.  

The Clemency Project

The categorical approach has been touted by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which last year launched the Clemency Project. Born out of the national ACLU’s 2020 Redemption Campaign, the Clemency Project identifies potential clients in the New Jersey state prison system and helps file cases to the governor’s office for review. While each case is still closely reviewed and deeply considered, categorical clemency can help expedite the process while also being more intentional about the groups of people that are disproportionately represented in prisons. 

Based on polling and analysis of the New Jersey state prison system, lawyers at the Clemency Project identified two categories to focus their efforts: survivors of intimate partner violence and those who face extreme trial penalties. The decision to exercise one’s right to a trial always comes with the penalty of a higher sentence than if a defendant takes a plea deal, said Rebecca Uwakwe, the director of the Clemency Project.

“We’re defining an extreme trial penalty as at least double the sentence of the prosecution’s offer, and we have a lot of cases where sometimes it’s triple or quadruple the prosecution’s offer,” Uwakwe said. “There’s a lot of sentencing disparities that happen as a result of someone going to trial, and that’s what we’re really trying to address with categorical clemency.”

In a prime example of the potential success of categorical clemency, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy commuted the sentences of three women in December: Myrna Diaz, Dawn Jackson, and Denise Staples. While ACLU-NJ assisted in the case of Jackson and Staples, all three women had documented histories of trauma and abuse and were sentenced for fighting back against their abusers. 

For our client, clemency is the last resort for seeking relief, but it’s really the first step for us to begin repairing the harms of a lot of bad policies and excessive sentences.

Rebecca Uwakwe, DIrector of ACLU-NJ’s Clemency Project

“Categorical clemency is important because as we’re shifting from this case-by-case evaluation, society is recognizing that there are issues within the criminal legal system that need to be addressed, and by designating certain categories, we’re saying that there are some issues here,” Uwakwe said. “It signals to legislators, to judges, to everyone, that there needs to be some reform in these certain areas. For our client, clemency is the last resort for seeking relief, but it’s really the first step for us to begin repairing the harms of a lot of bad policies and excessive sentences.” 

A sea change

On a federal level, recent commutations have addressed a wide swath of offenses, including those that ACLU-NJ is prioritizing. For Michelle West, her case falls squarely in the category of extreme trial penalties. Over more than 30 years of incarceration, she maintained her innocence and cited it as a key reason why she chose to go to trial and rejected a plea bargain.  

When former President Barack Obama launched his own clemency initiative in 2014, it was estimated that as many as 10,000 people might secure early release—a bright point for people like West who would otherwise die inside prison without a presidential pardon. However, only 1,696 people in federal prison ultimately had their sentences commuted. Those convicted of murder-related charges, like West, were excluded from the initiative. 

Biden’s final clemencies were not only historic in number, but also significant due to the type of convictions pardoned and commuted, including violent crimes. The decision to commute sentences of people like West also signals a broader shift toward normalizing the use of clemency in more capacious ways and widening our view of who is considered an acceptable recipient of mercy and relief. 

According to polling conducted by the ACLU-NJ, 80% of people supported clemency and also said they would vote for a governor who exercised their clemency powers, Uwakwe said.

“A lot of people supported second chances, and I think that there’s a lot of support right now because people are just opening their eyes to some of the injustices in the criminal legal system that maybe in the past they were unaware of,” Uwakwe said.

This sea change bodes well for advocates such as the National Council of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. As one of the most vocal groups who campaigned on behalf of West, the council has been celebrating this victory and highlighting the hundreds of other women with open petitions who have similar offenses. 

“As happy as we are for Michelle, our work continues,” said National Council Executive Director Andrea James in a press statement. “It should not take 10+ years of advocacy to bring a single woman home.” 

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor