Marion Jones asks president to commute sentence

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Disgraced Olympic track star Marion Jones has asked President Bush to commute her six-month prison sentence for lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and a check-fraud scam, the Associated Press reports.

The Justice Department has confirmed that Jones is among hundreds of convicted felons who are seeking presidential pardons or sentence commutations. A pardon removes a conviction from someone’s record, AP reported, and a commutation only reduces or eliminates the person’s sentence.

The Justice Department reviews all commutation and pardons and makes recommendations to the president.

Jones, who won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, entered prison on March 7 in Fort Worth. She frequently had denied that she ever used performance-enhancing drugs. But last October, she admitted that she had lied to federal investigators in November 2003.

Jones also admitted lying about her knowledge of the involvement of Tim Montgomery, the father of her older son, and a former 100-meter world-record holder about a scheme to cash millions of dollars worth of stolen or forged checks.

Jones was sentenced in January to six months in prison and 400 hours of community service in each of the two years following her release. She was sentenced to six months on the steroids case and two months on the check-fraud case but has been serving the sentences concurrently.

-- Greg Johnson