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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