A few months ago, we covered here a story about a woman named Sharanda Jones who was serving her 16th year of a Life Without Parole sentence for her first offense – a nonviolent drug crime. Her only hope at the time for ever seeing freedom was that President Obama (or some subsequent President) would commute her sentence.

Unexpectedly, Sharanda’s story was picked up by a number of larger media outlets than ours and awareness of her cause gained steam. I do not know if correlation equals causation, but I do know that President Obama announced today that Sharanda’s sentence would be commuted, and that she will be freed from prison on April 16, 2016.

The team of lawyers who have been working tirelessly to free Sharanda wanted me to pass on thanks to all of you, RedState readers, for helping to make a real difference in one person’s life.

Personally, I would like to offer my unqualified thanks to President Obama. He doesn’t do a lot that I like, but there’s little political benefit in letting convicted criminals out of jail for any reason, and in fact quite a lot of political liability. The President is to be commended for making the right decision in this case.