sentence commuted

From left field comes this story reported by AllHipHop. John Forte, a former producer and associate of the Fugees, has had his 14 year sentence commuted today by President Bush. It is common for American presidents to grant pardons at the end of their terms in an act that can not be refuted. There is some shadiness involved with this but on the flip-side of the argument a lot of good can also be achieved by righting incorrect judgements without the constant hassle of being brought back to court, or even worse still being in jail. I expected Bush to err more on the shady-side of these pardons at the end of his final term, and although that may still happen, he has stunned me with this one. Hit the break to read more. John Forte made a name for himself in music by writing and producing a couple tracks for The Score. He was arrested in 2000 at Newark Airport for accepting a briefcase worth $1.4 million in liquid cocaine. Since the beginning, Forte has refuted the charges and has had some help from singer Carly Simon and her son Ben Taylor, who Forte has been friends with for a long time. I am glad to see President Bush pardoning John Forte. For a president that stirred up so much animosity from the hip-hop community it is refreshing to see an action from him that is worth praising. Not only that, this pardon is both tangible and unilateral, something that is hard to find in government and directly affects our community. I don't want to go to crazy for Bush, but lets just say for someone who is counting down the days until Obama's presidency this was more than I hoped to see from our departing one.