President pardons two Valley men serving 20-year terms

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

President Barack Obama has commuted the sentence of a city man given a 20-year term in a federal prison on drug charges in 2002.

Arthur Clinkscale, 54, will have his sentence commuted Feb. 3, according to a news release from the White House.

Clinkscale was sentenced on a charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

In June 2002, Clinkscale was arrested in Girard by federal authorities. At the time, they said he was one of the largest distributors of crack cocaine in the Youngstown area. His arrest at the time culminated an eight-month investigation.

Vindicator files said a subsequent search of a bus locker in Niles belonging to Clinkscale had $32,000 worth of heroin inside.

Also pardoned was Gerald Lofton, age not available, from Warren, who was sentenced in June 2008 to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine base and being a felon in possession of a firearm. His sentence will be commuted Oct. 6, 2018, contingent upon him entering a drug-treatment program.

A commutation leaves a conviction intact but wipes out the punishment.

According to the White House, the president has now commuted the sentences of 774 men and women incarcerated under outdated and what he says were unduly harsh sentencing laws, including 266 individuals who were serving life sentences.