Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will be freed after serving just seven years of a 28-year prison sentence for bribery and racketeering charges while holding public office.
Nearly 8 years ago: Kwame Kilpatrick is convicted on 24 federal felony counts
A look back at the former Detroit mayor’s trial, conviction, appeals
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DETROIT - OCTOBER 28: Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appears in Wayne County Circuit Court for his sentencing October 28, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. Kilpatrick will spend 4 months in jail as part of a plea deal he accepted back in September in which he plead guilty to two felonies and no contest to a felony assault charge. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) (2008 Getty Images)
The jury had deliberated for 14 full days in the corruption trial and announced their verdict that Monday morning. The verdict had been reached the Friday before, but the jury decided to go home and sleep on it over the weekend to see if anyone would change his or her mind by Monday morning.
In 2008, the Rev. Kenneth Flowers was one of the first Detroit pastors to call for the resignation of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, saying it was needed for the city to move forward.
But like many others, he felt the 28-year sentence for corruption handed down by federal prosecutors in 2013 was overkill and illustrated a racial bias. So when Flowers heard early Wednesday morning that President Donald Trump had commuted Kilpatrick s sentence, he was pleased. I do not condone his actions, Flowers, pastor of Greater New Moriah Baptist Church in Detroit, said of Kilpatrick. However, I do believe that the sentence was excessive, particularly in light of other individuals, particularly white individuals, who may have been guilty of the same type of crimes but received far lesser sentences than he did. My concern was that the sentence was excessive and that they ve gone too far.
Steve Bannon, Lil Wayne: Who Did Donald Trump Pardon?
One notable absence from the list of those who were granted executive clemency was Tiger King star Joe Exotic, whose legal team had been so confident he d receive a last-minute pardon from the president they had a limo waiting. Kodak Black, Lil Wayne and Steve Bannon Photo: Getty Images
In one of his final acts in office, President Donald Trump issued pardons for 73 people and commuted the sentences of another 70, including Steve Bannon, Lil Wayne and rapper Kodak Black.
Trump signed the official paperwork that issued the pardons just before midnight on Wednesday, capping his final full day as president, according to The Washington Post.
Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 100 people.
On that lucky list is former Detroit Mayor
Kwame M. Kilpatrick, who had served a quarter of his prison sentence.
In a 2019 letter former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick wrote to Trump, he praised the now-former president, saying that he has “shaken up the entire world,” calling that “a great thing to behold.” (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
“This commutation is strongly supported by prominent members of the Detroit community,
Alveda King, Alice Johnson, Diamond and Silk, Pastor Paula White, Peter Karmanos, Representative Sherry Gay-Dagnogo of the Michigan House of Representatives, Representative