Eugenia Marie Jennings

Eugenia Marie "Boobina" Jennings was an American convicted criminal who was the first recipient of a commutation of sentence by President Obama. She was convicted of multiple drug related charges throughout her life. Her final conviction was for approximately fourteen grams of crack cocaine. That sentence was heavily impacted by mandatory minimums as evidenced by the testimony of her sentencing judge. The resistance against mandatory minimums from agencies such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) eventually lead President Barack Obama to his first commutation. Shortly after her commutation, she died from leukemia.
Biography
Jennings was born on August 2, 1977 in Alton, Illinois to Emma Ruth Jennings-Williams and Eugene Jennings. Growing up, Eugenia had a large family, consisting of 8 sisters and 12 brothers, along with the many nieces and nephews that were also a part of her life. Jennings was convicted in 2001, where she was sentenced to 22 years for her crime of distributing crack cocaine. This however, was the third time she had been charged with a drug-related crime, with the first being at the age of 18. After serving 10 years in prison, she was commuted by President Barack Obama, but the 8 years of supervised release was kept intact as a part of her sentence.
Jennings died in October 2013 at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, at the age of 36. The cause of her death was leukemia. She had three children; one daughter and two sons. From them, she also has one granddaughter.
Criminal History
According to testimony to a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee from Jennings' brother, Cedric Parker, his sister was a drug and alcohol abuser, as well as a victim of sexual abuse. A series of arrests in Jennings' past lead her to be treated as a career criminal in her final sentencing. Jennings' final conviction in 2001 for possession with intent to distribute 13.9 grams of crack cocaine led to a 22 year prison sentence. After 10 years of serving her sentence Jennings' sentence was commuted by President Obama.
Court Case and Mandatory Minimums
Jennings' case received national attention for its controversy of the implementation of Mandatory sentencing. Due to these historical standards in the United States, Judge G. Patrick Murphy claimed he had no choice but to sentence Jennings to 22 years behind bars. The judge publicly stated his own opinion on the matter, “Your whole life has been a life of deprivation, misery, whippings, and there is no way to unwind that, but the truth of the matter is, it’s not in my hands. As I told you, Congress has determined that the best way to handle people who are troublesome is we just lock them up.” This case is also notable for the disparity between sentencing for crack and cocaine in powdered form. The disparity went from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1 in a new bill passed by President Obama. This case has been said to be racially charged, by U.S Rep. Keith Ellison, due to the disproportional likelihood of blacks being charged with crack cocaine dealing compared to whites. There are many factors that led to Jennings' commutation, no doubt some were from the effects of protests from groups like FAMM and from support of high impact players like Illinois Democrat Dick Durban as well as the law firm Crowell and Moring. This, along with his passing of The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, was part of an effort by Obama to get rid of the harsh and mass sentences of the “war on drugs”. Eugenia was released on December 21, 2011, but remained sentenced to eight years of supervised release.<ref name=":0" />

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