By David Ingram and Bernard Vaughan WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday urged lawyers to help identify incarcerated low-level drug offenders who might be eligible for presidential clemency. Citing a "crushing" prison population, Deputy Attorney General James Cole made the unusual announcement in a speech to the New York State Bar Association. Candidates for clemency would include non-violent inmates who have clean prison records, do not present a threat to public safety, are facing excessive sentences and do not have "significant ties" to gangs or cartels, Cole said. In a sign of changing U.S. views about long prison sentences, Obama in December commuted the sentences of eight people after deciding their crack cocaine offenses did not justify their long prison terms.
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