\n Oscar Freemond Fowler was a free man for only four days.\n <\/p>\n
\n The convicted felon, whose federal prison sentence was commuted during the final days of Joe Biden\u2019s presidency, was released from custody on February 19, only to be rearrested for the same crime less than a week later \u2014 this time on state charges.\n <\/p>\n
\n In October 2023, Fowler was charged with possessing a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon and for possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute it after a 9mm pistol, 29 rounds of ammunition, cocaine and methamphetamine were found in his Florida home.\n <\/p>\n
\n He pleaded guilty and was sentenced<\/a> to more than 12 years in prison. About two years later, Fowler was one of nearly 2,500<\/a> people whose sentences Biden commuted.\n <\/p>\n \n Once he was released, however, his freedom did not last long.\n <\/p>\n \n What happened to Fowler is not new, and it\u2019s a move that has happened before, most famously to former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon.\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s in part because federal pardons and commutations don\u2019t cover local charges, meaning defendants can be charged again for the same crime under state law, experts say.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s completely plausible to be arrested for the same underlying acts on the state level as on the federal and to be pardoned on the federal level, but not the state,\u201d said Bernadette Meyler, a law professor and associate dean at Stanford University. \u201cThe presidential pardon power under Article Two (of the Constitution) covers only federal offenses, so it extends to someone\u2019s liability within the federal government.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n There\u2019s nothing legally or constitutionally wrong with charging someone with state charges after their sentence was commuted on the federal level, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt depends a bit on the nuances, but in general \u2014 and the Supreme Court reaffirmed this in 2019 \u2014 it does not violate double jeopardy for a person to be prosecuted separately in two separate cases by the state and then by the federal authorities,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Here\u2019s how the Constitution and a Supreme Court ruling make that possible.\n <\/p>\n \n Before Fowler\u2019s release, the Oversight Project, a conservative watchdog group, warned<\/a> officials that a \u201cviolent repeat offender and career criminal\u201d was about to be set free.\n <\/p>\n \n There are more than 60 cases listing Fowler as a defendant in Pinellas County, Florida alone. His criminal record there \u2014 which ranges from simple traffic violations to aggravated assault \u2014 dates back to 1991, court records show.\n <\/p>\n \n In a news release announcing Fowler\u2019s rearrest, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called<\/a> Fowler a \u201cdangerous repeat offender\u201d with a lengthy criminal record.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe Biden administration\u2019s use of the autopen is putting Floridians at risk by allowing dangerous felons back on the street, but we won\u2019t put up with it,\u201d Uthmeier said. An autopen \u2014 a device that writes the president\u2019s signature for him \u2014 was used to sign Fowler\u2019s commutation, a point of contention to those who opposed his release, as they argue it is not valid.\n <\/p>\n \n The Oversight Project later applauded<\/a> Fowler\u2019s rearrest.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFlorida is safer because a violent criminal is no longer on its streets,\u201d the organization said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n \n In bodycam video released by Uthmeier\u2019s office of Fowler\u2019s arrest, the 50-year-old man is seen in handcuffs being searched by officers.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI ain\u2019t sell no cocaine, man,\u201d Fowler is heard saying after an officer said he was being arrested on drug possession and distribution charges. \u201cAn old charge? How old? \u2026 I just got out of prison.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Fowler\u2019s attorney, Lee Pearlman, had no comment on the current case against his client.\n <\/p>\n \n A 2019 Supreme Court ruling provides the legal basis for Fowler\u2019s rearrest on the same charges.\n <\/p>\n \n That opinion, Gamble v. United States, upheld the dual-sovereignty doctrine, which says double jeopardy does not apply because two crimes are not the same if they are prosecuted by separate jurisdictions.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat was saying that, yes, there can be separate state and federal prosecutions,\u201d Meyler said.\n <\/p>\n \n The move to rearrest Fowler is possible both because of the Supreme Court ruling and because the federal pardon power doesn\u2019t cover state offenses, Meyler stressed.\n <\/p>\n \n But it\u2019s not just a question of whether it\u2019s legal to re-charge someone \u2014 the prosecutor in the new case should ask themselves if the new charges are necessary or fair, Honig said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOn the one hand, you could say, \u2018No, this person\u2019s already been fully prosecuted, and the pardon or commutation ended that case, and that\u2019s the course of justice, and there\u2019s no need to redo it,\u2019\u201d Honig said. \u201cOn the other hand, I suppose you could say, \u2018Well, the pardon or commutation led to an unjust result. Therefore, there\u2019s even more of a need for us to come in and prosecute it now.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The result of this case could end up depending on the double jeopardy laws of the state where it is prosecuted, Honig said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat person might be able to raise a double jeopardy argument, it would probably be an uphill climb, but the argument would have to be that it violates Florida\u2019s state double jeopardy laws,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n A commutation is a lesser included act of a pardon, Meyler explained.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cA pardon gets rid of all of the conviction and punishment for that conviction, and it can include one offense or multiple offenses,\u201d Meyler said. \u201cA commutation is a reduction in a sentence, so it doesn\u2019t affect the underlying conviction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In the Bannon example, the former White House chief strategist was charged<\/a> by federal prosecutors with money laundering, conspiracy and fraud. He was pardoned by Trump, but then faced charges<\/a> in New York for the same offenses.\n <\/p>\n \n Last February<\/a>, Bannon pleaded guilty to a state charge in a deal that allowed him to avoid prison time.\n <\/p>\n \n In another recent case, a Trump pardon did not affect state charges against a woman accused of election interference.\n <\/p>\n \n Late last year<\/a>, Trump announced he would grant a full pardon to Tina Peters<\/a>, the former Colorado clerk convicted of state charges for participating in a scheme to breach voting systems that hoped to prove Trump\u2019s false claims of voter fraud in 2020.\n <\/p>\n \n The president announced the pardon even though he couldn\u2019t erase her state charges, and his pardon had no legal impact on her state conviction and incarceration.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe Trump pardon, because it can only extend to federal crimes, can\u2019t extend to her state prosecution under Colorado State law, but Trump was kind of claiming that it did,\u201d Meyler said.\n <\/p>\n \n Peters remains incarcerated in Colorado.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Freemond Fowler was a free man for only four days. 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