Obama commutes sentence of Butler County man

President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 209 federal prisoners Tuesday, including one from Butler County, and granted pardons to 64 individuals according to the White House.

The president commuted the sentence of Mark J. Thornton, of Hamilton, who was sent to prison under the “three strikes” drug law.

In February 2008, Thornton was given a mandatory life sentence in prison under the 1988 “three strikes” law.

Thornton was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute in excess of five kilograms of cocaine and in excess of 50 grams of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute in excess of 500 grams of cocaine; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, according to a media release.

The U.S. attorney’s office said in 2007 that Thornton and co-conspirator Nirvana Martin would buy multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine from Mexican suppliers, re-package it into smaller quantities and convert some of it into crack cocaine. They would then re-sell the narcotics to other street-level drug dealers and users in the Dayton area.

Thornton will now serve a reduced sentence of 25 years and must enroll in a residential drug treatment program.

The overwhelming majority of the prisoners to whom the president granted pardons and commutations had been convicted of drug offenses — former intelligence agent Chelsea Manning being a notable exception.