President Joe Biden on Friday commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes, in what the White House called the largest single-day act of clemency in U.S. history.
Biden said in a statement that those whose sentences were commuted were serving “extraordinarily long sentences” compared to those they receive today.
He described the move as “an important step toward righting historical wrongs, correcting sentencing inequities, and providing eligible individuals the opportunity to return to their families.”
“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and pardons than any president in American history,” Biden said. He said he could issue more pardons or pardons before handing over power to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday.
The outgoing president said pardon recipients received longer sentences based on the now-discredited distinction between crack and powder cocaine, which disproportionately impacted the black community.
Historically, there have been significantly more crack cocaine cases involving black offenders than whites and the unequal sentencing policy has been condemned as racist.
Kara Gotsch, executive director of The Sentencing Project, which campaigns for prison reform, welcomed the White House’s clemency action, saying it would provide relief to “countless families who have suffered sentences that far outlived their usefulness to their loved ones.”
“Cruel and excessive prison sentences, which have disproportionately harmed Black communities, have been a cornerstone of federal drug policy for generations,” Gottsch said in a statement. “American communities, disproportionately black and brown, have long borne the scars of the drug war.”
Biden last month commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others.
Among those pardoned in December was Biden’s son Hunter, who was facing a possible prison sentence after pleading guilty to gun and tax crimes.
Biden, meanwhile, is reportedly debating whether to issue broad pre-emptive pardons for some aides and former officials amid fears Trump would target them for what he previously called “retaliation” May go.
In December, Biden also commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates.
Three people were excluded from the move: one of the 2013 Boston Marathon attackers, a gunman who killed 11 Jewish worshipers in 2018 and a white supremacist who killed nine black churchgoers in 2015.
Trump has indicated he would resume federal executions, which were halted while Biden was in office.
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