President Trump on Wednesday commuted a federal sentence for Larry Hoover, who is credited for founding the Gangster Disciples, a Chicago gang known for heinous murders, violent robberies and international narcotic sales.
Despite Trump’s decision, Hoover will remain in prison unless his legal team succeeds in its push for clemency from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) over a 1973 state murder conviction.
Hoover was born in Jackson, Miss. and moved to Chicago at the age of four years old. By the time he became a teenager, he dropped out of school and joined the Supreme Gangsters, where he participated in petty crime, according to Biography.com.
At the age of 19 years old, Hoover joined forces with David Barksdale, a rival gang leader, to form the Black Gangster Disciple Nation, which became a powerful force in the city’s South Side. When Barksdale died in 1970, Hoover took control of the gang, which soon expanded across state lines into other cities.
Three years later, Hoover was sentenced to 150-200 years in prison for murdering a 19-year-old drug dealer. He received another life sentence in 1997 on federal charges related to coordinating gang activities from prison, including extortion and federal drug conspiracy.
Throughout the past two decades, Hoover has attempted to have both his state and federal sentences commuted by political leaders.
In 2021, he hired Jennifer Bonjean, Bill Cosby’s former attorney, who unsuccessfully appealed his sentence under the First Step Act, signed by President Trump in 2018. The legislation seeks to reduce lengthy sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
“The courts have demonstrated a complete unwillingness to consider Mr. Hoover’s considerable growth and complete rehabilitation,” Hoover’s attorneys said in a statement to Newsweek.
“Thankfully, Mr. Hoover’s pleas were heard by President Trump who took action to deliver justice for Mr. Hoover,” they added.
Others have opposed his plea for a second chance, including Ron Safer, the former lead federal prosecutor who helped convict Hoover in 1997.
“I believe in redemption. I believe in rehabilitation. I believe in mercy. There are some crimes that are so heinous, so notorious, that they’re not deserving of mercy,” he told ABC7.
“If Larry Hoover said there was going to be a killing, there was a killing.”
Hoover has spent nearly three decades in solitary confinement at a federal prison in Colorado. His family says he’s done his time.
“He deserves redemption,” his son, Larry Hoover Jr., told ABC7. “He deserves a second chance at being a part of this community, and he can be a benefit to this community if they want him to be a benefit to this community.”