Phila. prosecutor to lead Obama's pardon unit

A federal prosecutor from Philadelphia has been named acting pardon attorney for the Department of Justice, the agency said in a statement Wednesday.

Robert A. Zauzmer, who currently oversees appeals for the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, will now review executive clemency requests sent to President Obama.

Upon Zauzmer's recommendation and that of the deputy attorney general, Obama can decide whether to pardon or commute sentences for inmates serving time for federal crimes.

In 2013, Obama asked the Department of Justice to prioritize clemency requests from inmates serving long sentences under policies that under today's laws would have resulted in much shorter sentences. Since the institution of that policy, 187 commutations have been granted, the department said in a statement.

Over the course of Obama's presidency, the pardon attorney's office has received 2,245 requests for pardons, 66 of which have been granted.

In the last eight years, the office has also received 18,924 requests to commute a sentence. Of those, 9,115 still need to be reviewed, according to statistics kept by the Justice Department.

Zauzmer, who has worked in the federal prosecutor's office in Philadelphia since 1990, was part of the team that successfully tried former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo for fraud. He is also a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

In his long career with the Justice Department, Zauzmer has helped implement policies to reduce lengthy sentences, testified before the federal commission that issues sentencing guidelines, and trained prosecutors on the ins and outs of retroactively reducing drug sentences.

"Bob's long-standing commitment to criminal justice reform and his knack for devising and implementing the department's sentencing reduction policies made him a natural choice to serve as pardon attorney," Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates said in a statement released by the department.

Zauzmer, quoted in the same statement, said "disproportionately lengthy" sentences for low-level criminals had long troubled him.

"It is my profound honor to aid the president in using his clemency power to continue to restore the sense of proportionality and fairness that is at the heart of our justice system," he said.

Speaking at the NAACP convention in Philadelphia last summer, Obama called for Congress to overhaul the country's justice system, ending practices like mandatory minimum sentences that have disproportionately affected African Americans and Latinos.

"If you are a low-level drug dealer or violate the terms of your parole, you have to be held accountable and make amends, but you don't owe 20 years," Obama said. "You don't owe a life sentence. That's disproportionate to the price that should be paid."

awhelan@philly.com

215-854-2961

@aubreyjwhelan