Source: SAMUEL CORUM / Getty
President Joe Biden is issuing a record-setting amount of pardons and clemency in one day – and states that there will be more to come.
On Thursday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden was issuing clemency for almost 1,500 people sentenced to home confinement and 39 other individuals convicted of non-violent crimes. The executive action is the largest such act of granting clemency and pardons in the history of the presidency. According to the White House, President Biden had already issued more commutations of sentences in his term at this point than any other recent president.
A list of the 39 individuals who received pardons has been released by the White House, along with brief biographies for each of them. Many had been convicted of non-violent crimes and had “proven rehabilitation” through their actions afterward, with many serving in the military, and others serving their communities as nurses and addiction counselors. Some of those receiving commutations to their sentences are expected to be released this month, with others set to be freed in March 2025.
“My administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances,” President Biden said in a statement. According to CNN, Biden is in constant talks with the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney as well as White House Counsel Ed Siskel.
The action comes after the president was under constant criticism from politicians and figures on both sides of the aisle after he moved to issue a blanket pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, at the beginning of the month. Hunter Biden had been convicted on tax charges as well as a charge related to having a firearm. There is no word on whether the president will consider retroactive pardons for political figures who have been marked for retribution by President-elect Donald Trump once he assumes office in late January 2025. Another question will be if President Biden will heed advice from Democratic lawmakers to commute the sentences of the 40 prisoners who remain on federal death row in the nation.
