We are hearing renewed rumblings that action in the clemency cases of Dwight and Steven Hammond is imminent.

President Trump should commute the sentences of the father and son and allow them to return to their Burns ranch.

Ranchers in Oregon’s Harney County, the Hammonds have a long history of disputes with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing allotments. Dwight Hammond was convicted of one count related to a fire that burned 139 acres of BLM land in 2006. Steven Hammond was convicted of one count related to the 2006 fire, and a separate count related to a fire in 2001.

The Hammonds received a fair trial, were found guilty and were given fair sentences. In addition to lengthy probation, Dwight Hammond received six months in prison, his son one year. The original prison sentences were served.

But the government appealed those sentences because the judge ignored the minimum mandatory five-year sentence prescribed by the federal arson statute. The appeals court overturned the original sentence, and the trial court ordered the Hammonds to report to a federal prison in California to serve out the remainder of new five-year sentences.

Their case, mostly unnoticed in urban America, drew a lot of attention in the western ranching community where they received a lot of positive support. And some that was less than helpful.

Before taking over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the militia group led by the Bundy clan conducted a rally in Burns in their support. The armed group urged the ranchers to refuse to return to prison and offered them “protection.”

To their credit, the Hammonds chose not to make a bad situation worse and to instead follow the rule of law.

They went quietly to prison where they have sat since January 2016.

We are not fans of mandatory sentencing guidelines that deny judges discretion in considering circumstances when fixing punishment. Sometimes, the cause of justice is served by leniency.

The original judge in the Hammonds’ case found a mandatory five-year sentence overly punitive given the circumstances of their crimes.

So do we.

Ordering the Hammonds to serve the five-year mandatory sentence, though unquestionably legal under statute, was an injustice.

The Hammonds have been in prison too long. The president should commute their sentences to time served and send them home.