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In March 2016, an image macro began circulating on Facebook, featuring a mug shot-type photograph of a man with the legend MY NAME IS WENDELL CALLAHAN, PRESIDENT OBAMA GAVE ME AN EARLY RELEASE FROM PRISON EVEN THOUGH I WAS A VIOLENT CRACK HEAD. YESTERDAY, I STABBED MY EX-GIRLFRIEND AND HER TWO YOUNG CHILDREN TO DEATH. IF OBAMA HAD LEFT ME WHERE I DESERVED TO BE, ALL 3 VICTIMS WOULD BE ALIVE TODAY.: Information about Callahan was readily available online and several months out of date by September 2016). According to multiple news reports, Callahan was arrested in January 2016 and charged with murdering a woman and her two children: Later news reports included information about Callahan's having receiving a reduced sentence for an earlier drug conviction, but those articles didn't report that President Obama had either pardoned Callahan or commuted his sentence. Instead, they noted that Callahan was released early due to changes in federal sentencing guidelines for drug offenses implemented in 2010: A February 2008 fact sheet [PDF] published by the Drug Policy Alliance showed that efforts to align sentencing for offenses involving crack and cocaine were initiated well before President Obama took office in January 2009. That publication documented a 1995 recommendation from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), as well as a 2007 effort by the USSC to change the sentencing disparities: The image was correct in stating that Wendell Callahan was arrested and charged with the murders of his girlfriend and two of her children, and that he had been released from prison early due to changes in sentencing procedures. However, he was released early not due to the intervention of President Obama, but due to the provisions of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, a bipartisan effort spearheaded by the USSC and based on recommendations first brought up in 1995.
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