During the coronavirus pandemic, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of approximately 1,500 people released from prison and placed on home confinement, and he pardoned 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It is the largest single-day clemency action in modern history.
People who served at least one year of their home confinement sentences after their release are eligible for the commutations announced on Thursday.
The virus spread particularly well in prisons, prompting the release of some inmates to aid in its containment. According to an Associated Press tally, one in every five prisoners had COVID-19 at some point.
Biden said he would take additional steps in the coming weeks and would continue to review clemency petitions. Barack Obama issued the second-largest single-day act of clemency, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.
“We built America on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden stated 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.”
Hunter, his son who faced charges of gun and tax crimes, received a broad pardon prior to the clemency. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon a large number of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes office in January.
He is also considering issuing preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and face potential retribution when he takes office.
Clemency refers to the president’s ability to pardon, which relieves a person of guilt and punishment, or to commute a sentence, which reduces or eliminates punishment but does not exonerate the wrongdoer.
It is customary for a president to show mercy at the end of his term, using the office’s power to erase records or end prison sentences.
According to White House lawyers, those pardoned on Thursday were convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses and had turned their lives around.
They include a woman who has led emergency response teams during natural disasters, a church deacon who has worked as an addiction and youth counselor, a doctoral student studying molecular biosciences, and a decorated military veteran.
The president had previously granted 122 commutations and 21 additional pardons. He has also granted broad pardons to those convicted of simple possession and use of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, as well as former US 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 placed under house arrest for three years for contempt of court charges stemming from his work representing Indigenous farmers in a lawsuit against Chevron.
Others are advocating for Biden to commute the sentences of federal death row inmates. Merrick Garland, the attorney general, halted federal executions.
Biden promised to abolish the death penalty during the 2020 campaign, but he never did, and now that Trump is back in office, executions are likely to resume.
During his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented number of federal executions, which took place during the peak of the pandemic.
More pardons are expected before Biden leaves office on January 20, but it is unclear whether he will take action to protect himself from potential prosecution by Trump, an untested use of the power.
The president has taken the idea seriously and has been considering it for up to six months—before the presidential election—but is 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.
However, those who received the pardons would have to accept them. New California Sen. Adam Schiff, who chaired the congressional committee that investigated the violent Jan. 6 insurgency, said such a pardon from Biden would be “unnecessary” and that the president should not be spending his final days in office worrying about this.
Before pardoning his son, Biden had repeatedly promised not to do so. In a statement explaining his reversal, he claimed that politics had poisoned the prosecution.
The decision prompted criminal justice advocates and lawmakers to increase public pressure on the administration to use the same authority for ordinary citizens.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a poll that revealed only about two out of every ten Americans supported his decision.