A man who had his federal life sentence commuted by President Obama in 2015 shot a woman on a Chicago expressway leaving her brain dead earlier this week, according to prosecutors.
Alton Mills, now 54, was jailed for life in 1994 for trafficking cocaine. Under the third strike rule, it was an automatic life sentence because he had two prior felony convictions even though he hadn’t served any prison time for either offense.
Mills was one of 1,927 convicts who had their sentences commuted by Obama, with another 212 being pardoned outright. The president cut Mills’ life sentence, so it expired in April 2016.
In the early hours of last Sunday morning, Mills allegedly opened fire on a car containing three friends who had just left a nightclub in south suburban Chicago, according to Assistant State Attorney Kathryn Morrissey.
Speaking at Mills’ bail hearing on Monday, Morrissey said a car pulled up behind the ex-convict’s SUV at a red light. As the SUV moved when the light turned green, the car drove around Mills, without honking the horn or making any other loud noise. Mills then allegedly chased after the car, pulling alongside it and firing a number of shots from the driver’s window.
Alex Wong/GETTY
One of the bullets hit a woman sleeping in the back of the car in the head, leaving her brain dead, according to prosecutors. Media outlet CWB Chicago, which covers crime in the Windy City, reports that she is not expected to survive.
Police used license plate reader data to link the crime with Mills’ SUV, executing search warrants on his property and vehicle on Monday. According to Morrissey, Mills “made admissions that he did the shooting,” and officers found bullets in his bedroom matching the caliber of those fired in the incident. The suspect was charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder and was remanded without bail on Tuesday.
Mills was convicted twice in 1992 for possession of crack cocaine, for which he received probation. A year later he was arrested on federal conspiracy charges targeting the group he had been involved with. A Section 851 enhancement was filed by prosecutors, resulting in the two previous convictions being counted against Mills in sentencing.
Consequently, District Court Judge Marvin Aspen had no choice but to give Mills a life sentence once he was convicted, although the judge described the punishment as “cruel and unusual” and said he would have liked to have given Mills “something other than life.”
Mills had his sentence commuted by Obama following a campaign backed by Senator Nick Durbin, who described him as an “overlooked casualty in our ‘war on drugs.'”
In the letter informing Mills his sentence was being commuted, Obama wrote: “I believe in your ability to prove the doubters wrong and change your life for the better. So good luck, and Godspeed.”
Newsweek has contacted Barack Obama for comment via the press contact form on his official website.
Obama was criticized by Republicans for commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who leaked a trove of classified U.S. documents to Wikileaks in 2010, as one of his final acts in office.
A lawsuit filed against Rudy Giuliani this month alleges the former New York mayor offered to sell presidential pardons for $2 million each, with the connivance of President Trump. Speaking to Newsweek, Giuliani adviser Ted Goodman said the mayor “unequivocally denies the allegations raised.”