Two Iowans listed among Obama's commutations Monday

Grant Rodgers, grodgers@dmreg.com

Two Iowa men serving life sentences for drug convictions are among the federal inmates who received commutations from President Barack Obama on Monday.

President Obama granted 78 pardons and 153 commutations on Monday, Dec. 19.

Anthony Timothy Dodd of Davenport and Aaron Duane Rees of Pleasantville had their sentences commuted to 20 years in prison by Obama, who has spoken out against the lengthy sentences given to nonviolent drug offenders at the height of the government's "war on drugs."

Obama granted 78 pardons and 153 commutations in total on Monday.

Rees, 47, received a life sentence in 2005 after being convicted of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and use of a minor to manufacture methamphetamine. Prosecutors accused Rees of recruiting his then 17-year-old girlfriend into the meth trade, telling her to buy pseudoephedrine, batteries and other ingredients for the drug, according to court documents.

"We've prayed for it every day and it came," Rees' mother, Barbara Rees, said of the commutation. "We were hoping something would happen.” 

Dodd, 56, was convicted of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and received his sentence in 2006.