The US president has commuted nearly 2,500 “disproportionately long sentences”
US President Joe Biden has commuted the prison terms of nearly 2,500 non-violent drug offenders, setting a record for the most pardons and clemencies issued by an American president.
The commutations will apply to individuals “who are serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice,” the White House said in a statement on Friday.
The majority of these people were given lengthy sentences based on distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, and “outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes,” the statement explained. The crack cocaine distinction was eliminated by the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, while the 2018 First Step Act lowered mandatory minimum sentences for serious drug felonies.
The Fair Sentencing Act was signed into law by Barack Obama, while the First Step Act was signed by Donald Trump, who returns to the White House for a second term next week.
“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in US history,” Biden said on Friday.
American presidents have extensive powers of pardon and commutation, and typically use these powers during their final days in office. Last month, Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners to life in prison without parole, commuted the sentences of 1,500 others, and pardoned 39 more – mostly non-violent drug offenders.
Biden’s most controversial pardon was granted to his son, Hunter, who was convicted last year of breaking federal gun and tax laws. However, the pardon covered offenses which Hunter “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024,” a period that extends far beyond the time the gun and tax offenses took place and encompasses Hunter’s time on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm.
Citing a trove of emails and messages found on Hunter’s laptop in 2020, Republicans maintain that Hunter used this position to enrich the Biden family by selling access to his father, who was vice president of the US at the time.
