in the case and the judge who handed out the triple life sentence they both said they wanted clarence aaron'stence immediately commuted. the prosecutor and the judge advocated that the president should commute mr. aaron's sentence, shorten it and let him out of prison. but that did not happen. and according to the article in the washington post, it didn't happen because the guy who had something called the office of the pardon attorney, the office that reviews the situation and decides if it is warranted, that office recommended to the white house that clarence aaron should remain in prison. he got the judge under president bush. when he said he thought clarence aaron should continue to serve his triple life sentence he failed to mention that the prosecutor and the sentencing judge in mr. aaron's case didn't agree with that assessment. he kept it a secret that the prosecutor in mr. aaron's case that the judge and prosecutor had advocated for his sentence to be immediately commuted. that is really, really relevant information when somebody is applying to get their sentence commuted. but that i

. >> you have written a lot about ronltd roberts because the clarence aarons case because people shouldom reading msnbc.com, and tee subscribe briefly this case and why rogers became such a hot button as a result. >> sure. eric holder today, and in his comments, highlighted this case, the fact this they released clarence aaron from prison in december, one of the eight people the president chose who was serving an absurdly long sentence. first-time drug offender. he had -- testifies a great case for clemency. tried on get clemency at the end of the bush administration, and ronald roberts prevented him from getting this pardon, even though the white house was eager to see his release. effectively kept information from the president in order to prevent clairon arnz -- it's an example of the kinds of cases the pardon office tried to prevent. i think making changes there, bringing in new staff attorneys, it sounds like they're going to restaff that office. i was at an event last week where obama's lawyer, white house counsel catherine talked about bringing in new staff attorneys into that of

one of those individuals was clarence aaron. he was 24 years old at the time of his arrest.s first time offense. he wasn't the dealer, supplier or buyer, and he was sentenced to three life terms. another was stephanie george. she was 26 years old at the time of her arrest. a mother of three. she hid boyfriend's drugs in her house and she was sentenced to life in prison. >> this is the sorry consequence of the movement that started in the 1980 whz when the conservative movement was rising. so you started to see a skyrocketing in incarcerations. in 1980, half a million folks were incarcerated. today, about 2.5. that is quadruple and it's really a stain on us as a country. we have 5% of the world's population, yet a quarter of the world's incarcerated population. so it is time that we start righting the direction. it's not just about punishment. it's also about rehabilitation and reforming these individuals. there are some bad apples that you just got to put away. but the vast majority can be rehabilitated. >> we've been throwing away, we've been treating people as disposable h

, one of the people that the president -- whose sentences the president commuted in december, clarence aarond his sentence in december. he actually went home last week. he went through a very long sort of re-entry program. he was in a halfway house, you know, with family support, job support, you know, community support, all in this -- headed in this direction. i think here you really do kind of need that extra -- that extra safety net to help people, otherwise you are in this place. i think also this is the reason that so many more people are petitioning for pardons, because they really want a clean record and a much fresher start after they get out. >> at the end of the day it will be cheaper to do that, right, to provide these programs and re-entry program than to keep them incarcerated year by year. >> one of the reasons clarence aaron got to go home is because of dafna linzer. glenn, dafna, judith and raul, thank you for joining us. >>> coming up, a story that stems from the supreme court case about proposition 8 that you have not heard anywhere else. it's a kind of "guess who's coming