Former prosecutor takes on clemency case.

All across the United States on August 3 around 1:30 p.m., 214 inmates were summoned from their cells in federal prisons and taken to rooms to wait for phone calls. They weren't told why, and usually phone calls bring bad news--like the death of a family member.

But this time, the news was good: "You're going home."

"There are whoops of joy and crying all across America," said Donna Elm, federal public defender for the U.S. Middle District of Florida, as she described the build-up to the largest single-day grant of commutations in the nation's history.

President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 214 more federal inmates, bringing the total to 562 nonviolent offenders who had served at least 10 years, had never violated probation, and had good behavior records behind bars.

As Elm described, all the lawyers handling the cases got a call between 10 a.m. and noon from the U.S. Office of Pardon Attorney, if their grants were successful. But it's a secret until President Obama holds a press conference at 1 p.m.

"So all across America, 214 lawyers are calling their clients to convey the news at the same time," Elm said.

When Elm couldn't locate one attorney handling a case, she made the call herself.

Holding the phone in prison, the female inmate blurted out: "Who?"

"I said, 'Oh, honey, this is a good call. Relax. Breathe. Nobody died. Listen, the President granted you clemency, and you are going home."

"She started sobbing. All across America, people are crying," Elm said.

Matt Mueller, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice at Wiand Guerra King in Tampa, agreed to take on a case pro bono when Elm put out the word she needed help.

"I answered the call. I spent some years sparring with Donna Elm's assistants as a prosecutor," Mueller said. "Now I'm on her side and I respect them very much. It's a testament to them that they didn't forget these folks."

Mueller got to make that happy call to 50-year-old Titus Jerrard Mobley, from Groveland, Florida, who uses a wheelchair and has served 12 years on a 17.5-year sentence for peddling crack cocaine on the street.

"It's a matter of fairness," Mueller said. "Even as a prosecutor, your first instinct is to make sure justice is done. As a criminal defense lawyer, it's a different approach."

The laws in place when Mobley was sentenced for nonviolent, street-level crimes brought a sentence greater than what he would have gotten for the same crime today, Mueller said.

"The War on Drugs...