Texas woman on President Trump commuting her sentence after 12 years
Crystal Munoz tells 'Fox & Friends Weekend' that President Trump commuting her sentence 'was like a major weight was lifted off of me.'
Crystal Munoz, who President Trump commuted the remaining term of supervised release from prison last week, told "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Sunday that she "was definitely over sentenced" for a marijuana offense.
"I was definitely over sentenced and there are thousands of women and men that are just like myself who are serving very severe sentences for the crimes they committed," Munoz said on Sunday.
"You don’t realize until you get caught up in the judicial system how the laws are written or how it could affect you and it’s very hard to understand and it’s very hard to get out of once you’re inside the judicial system in the prison system."
Munoz, who was first granted clemency by President Trump in February , told Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime" at the time that she would "really love" to give President Trump "a huge hug."
The Texas mother of two was convicted in 2007 of conspiring to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana and later sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison.
In court filings, Munoz claimed that her only role was drawing a map others allegedly used in transporting marijuana from Mexico to Texas and said her lawyer failed to properly defend her at trial.
Munoz found an advocate in Alice Johnson, the Tennessee grandmother featured in a Super Bowl commercial spotlighting President Trump’s record on criminal justice issues.
Trump commuted Johnson's sentence in June 2018 after her case caught the attention of high-profile figures, including Kim Kardashian West and Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
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Munoz had a 5-month-old daughter when she started her prison sentence and gave birth to another daughter while she was behind bars.
Last week, President Trump granted full pardons to 15 people and commuted part or all of the sentences of an additional five, including Munoz’s remaining term of supervised release.
The president previously commuted her sentence of incarceration after she had served 12 years in prison.
"I was very relieved just to say the least … because even though I was released from incarceration, I still had like a ball and chain from probation and I was very limited on what I could and couldn’t do so it was like a major weight was lifted off of me," Munoz said on Sunday.
"During her time in prison, she mentored people working to better their lives, volunteered with a hospice program, and demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to rehabilitation," according to a White House news release.
"I don’t know if people are aware, but there’s many people inside of prisons that are dying and they die daily and of course they don’t have family members and the inmates care for them, and that’s just something that I … volunteered for and I experienced firsthand," Munoz said.
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In the waning weeks of his presidency, Trump also issued pardons and commutations to former members of Congress convicted of corruption charges and two people charged in the Russia probe, George Papadopoulos and Alexander Van Der Zwaan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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