With Clemency From Obama, Drug Offender Embraces Second Chance

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Rudolph Norris walked out of Morgantown federal prison two weeks ago carrying a duffel bag like no other. First, he had spent six months hand-stitching it himself from dozens of mottled leather scraps, symbolizing the shards of his life he longed to piece back together. Then he unzipped it and pulled out his invitation to try.

“Dear Rudolph,” the letter began, “I wanted to personally inform you that I have granted your application for commutation.”

It was signed “Barack Obama.”

Mr. Norris’s 22 years behind bars over with the stroke of the president’s pen, he showed off the letter to his receiving crowd of siblings, in-laws and, mostly, his all-grown-up daughter, Rajean, who had wondered if she would ever again see her father out of an orange jumpsuit. (“That’s my daddy!” she said as he came into view, sounding like the 8-year-old she had been back when he was sentenced.) Mr. Norris hugged and cried and fist-bumped.

Then the ex-inmate, a newly minted symbol of second chances, rode the family’s rental van from West Virginia back to Maryland. 
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