Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a presidential pardon to 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 others who were serving long prison terms.
The pardons and clemency come over a week after president Joe Biden signed an unconditional pardon for his son Hunter.
Officials said last week that the White House was listening to demands for Biden to extend the same grace to thousands of people wronged by the U.S. judicial system.
The commutations on Thursday were announced for those who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden said these people would have received shorter sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices.
Sources had told Reuters last week that the pardons that were being discussed were said to include those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and people identified by civil rights groups as unjustly incarcerated.
“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,” Biden said.
The president added that he will take more steps in the weeks ahead and that his administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions.
The White House said that the clemencies granted by Biden were the most ever in a single day.
President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said he would act on his first day in office to pardon rioters involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, further building expectations for a broad granting of clemency.
According to a BBC report, Biden’s decision earlier this month to pardon his son, Hunter, continued a trend of presidents on both sides of the US political divide – including Trump – granting clemency to people close to them.
Biden’s son was facing sentencing for two criminal cases.
The move has proven controversial, since the outgoing president previously ruled out doing it. But he claimed the cases against his son were politically motivated, the report said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
