U.S. President Commutes Nearly 1,500 Sentences, Just Weeks After Pardoning Son Hunter
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| Biden Breaks Record with Unprecedented Clemency Grants |
The White House announced Wednesday that the U.S. Outgoing President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 1,499 people and pardoned 39 non-violent offenses.
Earlier this month, he also granted a full pardon to his son Hunter, saying his conviction was politically motivated.
The decision was the largest single-day clemency in the US, the statement said. in the history of. The previous record was set by President Barack Obama, who commuted 330 penalties shortly before leaving office in 2017. Biden's predecessor and successor, Donald Trump, issued 237 executive relief packages in his first term, with almost 150 penalties handed out in final days in... president, in early 2021.
Biden changed sentencing for people who have “successfully returned to their families and communities,” the announcement said. Many of those on the list were transferred from prison to house arrest during the Covid-19 pandemic, as the disease spread across the US. concentration camps, affecting up to 20% of the prison population.
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U.S. President Commutes Nearly 1,500 Sentences, Just Weeks After Pardoning Son Hunter |
The pardons broadly apply to “individuals convicted of unlawful use and possession of marijuana” and “former LGBTQI+ employees convicted of private conduct due to sexual orientation,” the statement said Biden’s and presidential power used to “reunite families, communities To help strengthen and individual reintegration into society record of criminal justice reform around".
As a senator, Biden was instrumental in passing the Crime Prevention Act of 1994, a controversial law that placed in prison many nonviolent offenders who were black who were disproportionately convicted on drug charges Passed on Under President Bill Clinton, the bill “shaped Democratic politics for years, ” with Republicans “having a criminal belligerence” if to increase penalties, according to the leading American Civil Liberties Union human rights group
On Dec. 10, 1, Biden announced that he had pardoned his son Hunter, who could have faced punishment this month for federal tax and gun convictions. The president said the lawyers were wrong and politically motivated. The move came despite repeated assurances from Biden and his office that he would not shield his son from criminal liability.
According to an opinion poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only 20% of Americans and 40% of Democrats approved of Hunter Biden's pardon