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Biden Commutes About 1,500 Sentences 12/12 06:01
President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who
were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus
pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It's the
largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly
1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement
during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of
nonviolent crimes. It's the largest single-day act of clemency in modern
history.
The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home
confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons
were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in
part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according
to a tally kept by The Associated Press.
Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would
continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of
clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.
"America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances," Biden
said in a statement. "As president, I have the great privilege of extending
mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring
opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their
communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent
offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted
for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon
broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump
administration takes over in January. He's also weighing whether to issue
preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump's effort to overturn the
results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution
when he takes office.
Those pardoned Thursday had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug
offenses and turned their lives around, White House lawyers said. They include
a woman who led emergency response teams during natural disasters; a church
deacon who has worked as an addiction counselor and youth counselor; a doctoral
student in molecular biosciences; and a decorated military veteran.
The president had previously issued 122 commutations and 21 other pardons.
He's also broadly pardoned those convicted of use and simple possession of
marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, and pardoned former
U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on
consensual gay sex.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and 34 other lawmakers are urging the president
to pardon environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who was
imprisoned or under house arrest for three years because of a contempt of court
charge related to his work representing Indigenous farmers in a lawsuit against
Chevron.
Others are advocating for Biden to commute the sentences of federal death
row prisoners. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, paused federal
executions. Biden had said on the campaign trail in 2020 that he wanted to end
the death penalty but he never did, and now, with Trump coming back into
office, it's likely executions will resume. During his first term, Trump
presided over an unprecedented number of federal executions, carried out during
the height of the pandemic.
More pardons are coming before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, but it's not
clear whether he'll take action to guard against possible prosecution by Trump,
an untested use of the power. The president has been taking the idea seriously
and has been thinking about it for as much as six months -- before the
presidential election -- but has been concerned about the precedent it would
set, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated
Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.
But those who received the pardons would have to accept them. New California
Sen. Adam Schiff, who was the chairman of the congressional committee that
investigated the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, said such a pardon from Biden
would be "unnecessary," and that the president shouldn't be spending his waning
days in office worrying about this.
A president has the power to both pardon, in which a person is relieved of
guilt and punishment, or commute a sentence, which reduces or eliminates the
punishment but doesn't exonerate the wrongdoing. It's customary for a president
to grant mercy at the end of his term, using the power of the office to wipe
away records or end prison terms.
Before pardoning his son, Biden had repeatedly pledged not to do so. He said
in a statement explaining his reversal that the prosecution had been poisoned
by politics. The decision prompted criminal justice advocates and lawmakers to
put additional public pressure on the administration to use that same power for
everyday Americans. It wasn't a very popular move; only about 2 in 10 Americans
approved of his decision, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC
Center for Public Affairs Research.
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