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US President George W. Bush, who commuted Scooter Libby's sentence yesterday, was asked to use the Presidential clemency powers to cut jail terms of non-violent drug offenders serving decades in prison under mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

"There are hundreds if not thousands of worthy clemency petitions awaiting the President's decision -- these prisoners don't have the same White House connections as Scooter Libby, but they deserve the same serious consideration he received," Families Against Mandatory Minimums President Julie Stewart said. "The President needs to grant these applicants to prove that clemency is available not just to the well-connected but to every deserving prisoner."

Many of FAMM's members are prisoners, children and families affected by mandatory minimum penalties which it considers "unjustifiably harsh."

In granting clemency to Vice Presiden Cheney's former Chief of Staff, Bush said: "Mr. Libby was a first-time offender with years of exceptional public service and was handed a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury."

According to FAMM, permanently disabled member Leah Atkinson, who suffers from chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and major depression following a snowmobile accident, is in prison for using cocaine to relieve her pain after insurance discontinued her coverage.

Atkinson insists that she was heavily medicated following her arrest, taking up to 80 mg of Oxycontin and 40 mg of Percocet a day along with other medications, and has little recollection of what she told the authorities or what they made her sign.

Another member DeJarion Echols, a father of two, was arrested and sentenced to twenty years in prison for selling crack when he was just 23 years old.

At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith, Jr. said, “This is one of those situations where I’d like to see a congressman sitting before me.”

Monica Clyburn was trying to get her life back together after being caught selling three $20 rocks of cocaine to an undercover officer, when she was sentenced to 15 years mandatory minimum for providing her ID when her boyfriend tried to sell his pistol.

She claims that she did not realize that signing a piece of paper was enough to be considered a “felon in possession of a firearm.”

The judge Ralph W. Nimmons, Jr. said at sentencing, “…this is a lady who started using crack cocaine at an early age, was addicted to it. And I don’t have any evidence before me that she was a big dealer. In fact, I think it’s tragic in this case. This is a terrible situation.”