Eddie Jones, a Paducah attorney, received a presidential pardon Thursday for nonviolent drug charges he pleaded guilty to in 2002.(McCracken County) Eddie Jones, 60, had his life changed by addiction. In an interview, he said he started using drugs in 1999. By 2002, he was living with addiction and had pleaded guilty to nonviolent federal drug offenses. “Like many addicts, every day, I'd wake up and say, ‘I'm not going to use,’ and then I would relapse, and I needed help,” Jones said. “I had gone to some private rehabs, but it was difficult. Addiction is baffling and powerful, and I can't explain it. I just came to know that it was bigger than me.” Documents from a case involving Jones and the Kentucky Bar Association show that Jones temporarily lost his license to practice law, facing a 26-month sentence after being found in possession of a small amount of cocaine and failing to report it to authorities. Jones served around 16 months of his sentence before being released on probation. Jones, who previously served in the Army and was honorably discharged after achieving the rank of Captain, returned to Paducah as a law clerk in 2004. The next year he applied for his license to be reinstated and was eventually granted it by the Kentucky Bar Association in 2006. Looking back, Jones feels lucky to have made it through that period of his life. “I'm broke still, and I get set up, and I live in a trailer park in Paducah, and I go to [Narcotics Anonymous] meetings, and I go to work every day, and I do the next right thing every day,” he said of the time. “And turns out, if you do those things, good things will multiply. I know it's because other people were holding a flashlight for me when I needed one.” Since then, according to a White House release, Jones has had a “notable legal career.” He's also worked as a volunteer for local addiction recovery groups and been elected twice to public office. He became a McCracken County commissioner in 2018 and was reelected in 2022. “I had previously been restored in my civil rights … and, God, I'm grateful for the opportunity to to serve in public service,” he said. “It means the world to me to do that. And I think part of that quest was also a quest for atonement. I want to earn forgiveness.” In total, Biden pardoned 39 people and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people. His administration hailed his actions Thursday as "the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.” Amnesty is being extended to people placed in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to those convicted of nonviolent crimes – particularly drug crimes – that have “shown successful rehabilitation. Jones said he was “choked up” by the news – which he only learned of the day before the announcement, after having applied for clemency at least six years ago – and hopes that his story can provide hope for others who have faced addiction. “To the degree that this moment in my life can help someone else. Hey, I hope it can. Addiction is hard, and it's not just hard on the addict. It's even harder on the people that love the addict,” he said. “I don't consider this the building block of a career or a next opportunity. I believe I've been afforded the opportunity of grace and forgiveness from family and friends and from my community and now from my nation.” Jones currently works at a Paducah law firm and is serving his second term as a McCracken County Commissioner. The acts of clemency follow Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, for gun and tax felonies that spurred backlash from criminal justice activists who believed that many who were more worthy of a reprieve lacked the same family connections. Copyright 2024 WKMS