Biden Announces Largest Single-Day Act of Clemency in Modern History
Story by Gareth Vipers, Catherine Lucey
President Biden will commute the sentences of around 1,500 people, in the largest single-day act of clemency for any president in modern U.S. history.
The commutations, announced in a statement Thursday, are for people who were released from prison and placed in home confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the commutations, Biden is also pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.
Prisons became fertile breeding grounds for infection during the pandemic and some inmates were released in efforts to stop the virus from spreading. The commutations are for those people who were released and are deemed to have successfully reintegrated into their communities.
“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in the statement.
The mass commutation comes after Biden issued a surprise pardon for his son Hunter Biden earlier this month, wiping away criminal convictions on tax and gun charges. The president said he would continue to review clemency petitions in the coming weeks.
A person familiar with the conversations said there was also an active discussion about additional pardons, including for people on federal death row.
Top White House officials have also been debating whether Biden should issue wide-ranging pre-emptive pardons to people who haven’t committed crimes but who the White House fears could be targeted by the new administration, according to people familiar with the conversations.
No decision has been made as to whether to pursue those pre-emptive pardons or not, said a person familiar with the talks. A focus of the conversations is officials who were involved with President-elect Donald Trump’s impeachment and a congressional committee that looked into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump has hinted at possible jail time for figures involved in the investigation.
Some of those who could receive such a pardon have said they don’t think it is needed.
“I don’t think the incoming president should be threatening his political opponents with jail time. That’s not the kind of talk we should hear from the president in a democracy,” said newly sworn-in Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), who served on the Jan. 6 committee. “Nor do I think that a pardon is necessary for the members of the Jan. 6 committee,” Schiff said.
The previous single-day record for presidential clemency was set by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before he left office in 2017.
Biden has come under pressure to use executive powers before leaving office.
Late last month, a group of Democratic lawmakers sent Biden a letter pushing him to grant clemency and issue pardons before Trump takes over on Jan. 20.
Advocacy groups have been calling for a swath of pardons, including for people on federal death row and with marijuana convictions.
Biden has previously issued blanket pardons for those convicted of minor marijuana-related crimes, but those didn’t make federal inmates eligible for release.
Annie Linskey contributed to this article.
Write to Gareth Vipers at gareth.vipers@wsj.com and Catherine Lucey at catherine_lucey@wsj.com
No comments:
Post a Comment