James Rosemond, also known as Jimmy Henchman, failed to convince a judge he should be released from prison.
According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. Mazzone ruled against a petition claiming Donald Trump commuted James Rosemond’s prison sentence.
James Rosemond’s legal team said the former president granted clemency to the disgraced record executive via a phone call with Jim and Monique Brown. But no record of clemency was ever sent to Richard Hudgins, the warden of the U.S. penitentiary where Jimmy Henchman remains incarcerated.
No written record of the alleged commutation was created before Donald Trump left office in January 2021. James Rosemond’s lawyers contended the phone conversation with the Browns was enough to get their client out of prison, but Judge Mazzone disagreed.
“The undersigned agrees with respondent that the communication at issue in this case was not publicly communicated,” the judge wrote. “Petitioner argues that the form of an act of clemency does not matter so long as the President communicates it publicly. According to the declarations of Jim and Monique Brown, the communication at issue was a phone call between the Browns and President Trump, along with unidentified people in the room with the President. The undersigned agrees with respondent that this was not a public communication. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a less public communication.”
Judge Mazzone also cited the various pardons that were properly granted by Donald Trump before leaving office. The judge determined the ex-president never truly intended to give clemency to James Rosemond.
“As the respondent points out, President Trump followed an established procedure for acts of clemency,” he wrote. “For sentence commutations, he executed a warrant of commutation with a directive to the Bureau of Prisons to release the inmate. This included commutation warrants issued on December 22 and 23, 2020, mere days after the phone call in this case. The lack of a commutation warrant in this case shows a clear lack of intent on the part of President Trump to commute Rosemond’s sentence.”
Judge Mazzone recommended the dismissal of James Rosemond’s petition with prejudice, which will prevent it from ever being refiled. Jimmy Henchman’s legal team has 14 days to send their specific objections to the judge’s recommendation.
James Rosemond was convicted for running a drug trafficking organization and ordering the murder of 50 Cent’s associate Lowell Fletcher. He is serving consecutive life sentences without parole.
