President Obama commutes life in prison sentence for El Paso man convicted on cocaine charges

William Ennis of El Paso is among the 214 prisoners whose sentences were commuted by President Obama Wednesday, The Washington Post reports.

Ennis was convicted of conspiring to possess, with intent to distribute, more than five kilograms of cocaine; possession, with intent to distribute, more than five kilograms of cocaine; and using a communication device to facilitate the commission of a felony.

On July 17, 2003, Ennis was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.

Under the president’s commutation grant, the prison sentence will expire on December 1, 2016. Ennis will be placed on supervised release for a period of 10 years when his prison term expires, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said.

President Barack Obama is cutting short the sentences of 214 federal inmates, including 67 serving life sentences.

The White House says it’s the largest batch of commutations on a single day in more than a century. Almost all the prisoners were serving time for nonviolent drug offenses.

The commutations bring to 562 the total number of sentences Obama has shortened.