President Biden pardoned 39 people and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 others on Thursday, a sweeping move that comes after pressure from criminal justice advocates over the surprise pardon of his son Hunter Biden.
The White House billed it as setting a new single-day record for the number of people impacted. They include those who have seen serving house arrest since the COVID-19 pandemic and nonviolent offenders.
President Biden also pledged to “take more steps in the weeks ahead” as his administration continues to review clemency petitions with just more than a month left in his White House tenure.
Here are five things to know about the move:
Biden’s move hits new single-day record
The blast of clemencies to more than 1,500 Americans marks the most ever issued in a day, the White House touted, and they come after Biden faced recent criticism for not matching up to the leniency numbers of his predecessors.
Trump pardoned 144 Americans in his first term and commuted 94 sentences, according to statistics from the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. Former President Obama — under whose administration Biden was vice president — granted 212 pardons and a whopping 1,715 commutations across his two terms in office.
Biden’s acts of forgiveness this week bring him up to 65 pardons and more than 1,600 commutations total, surpassing Trump’s commutation figures and nearing Obama’s, with several weeks still to go in his single term.
The president also hinted in his statement that more clemency or criminal justice moves could be coming down the pipeline in his final weeks as president.
39 pardons
Biden’s pardons are all for nonviolent offenders, many for drug offenses.
Some, like 79-year-old James Russell Stidd of Groveport, Ohio, had pleaded guilty to a nonviolent offense when he was 20 years old.
Many of those pardoned are considered “upstanding” community members for their neighborhoods.
James Edgar Yarbrough, 79, had received a Purple Heart for his services in the Air Force, from where he had been honorably discharged.
Some, like Shannon Rae Faulkner, 56, went on to continue their education following the completion of their sentence. Faulkner now works as a counselor and recovery coach with female trauma victims and people with disabilities.
While a pardon doesn’t erase the crime from the record, it restores civil liberties and helps ease the stigma around a federal conviction. Before Thursday, Biden had issued 26 pardons, per DOJ statistics, including the pardon of his son earlier this month.
1,499 clemencies
With Biden’s new commutations, nearly 1,500 Americans will have their sentences reduced, though it’s unclear by how much at this point.
His commutations focused on Americans who have been serving their sentences at home for at least a year under the pandemic-era Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, a 2020 law that allowed for extended home confinement for certain prisoners, the White House said.
The affected people have since “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance,” Biden said in his statement. The White House also noted they’ve demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation by securing employment and advancing their education.
Biden stressed that many of the hundreds of Americans affected by the new commutations would receive lower sentences “if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices.”
Before Thursday’s announcement, Biden had issued 135 commutations, according to DOJ statistics.
But although advocates largely responded with praise to the latest surge of clemencies, they stressed there’s more work to be done.
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the Brennan Center’s Justice program, called the Thursday move “a vital recognition of the excessively punitive nature of our criminal justice system,” but reupped calls for Biden to commute the sentences of the more than 40 people on death row.
Clemencies come after upset over Hunter
The outgoing president’s latest clemencies and pardons come after longstanding pressure from criminal justice advocates to issue more leniency before leaving office. But those voices grew louder after Biden made the bombshell decision to pardon his son after repeatedly vowing he wouldn’t do so.
That pardon drew sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle — Republicans called the move an abuse of the justice system, and Democrats worried going back on his earlier pledge not to issue the pardon was a political gift to Trump.
But it also prompted a surge of new and renewed calls for the commander in chief to show forgiveness to other groups, including nonviolent offenders and inmates facing the death penalty. Some even suggested Biden should pardon Trump’s perceived enemies to protect them when he takes office.
Activists underscored the disparities faced by Black Americans in the justice system in particular as they argued Biden has a responsibility to use his clemency power to rectify inequities. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and outgoing Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) were among the progressive voices pushing Biden from Capitol Hill.
Pressley praised Biden’s actions on Thursday but added there is still more he could do.
“With 39 days remaining in his presidency, President Biden has the power to continue to use his clemency authority to change and save the lives of many, many other Americans behind the wall,” Pressley said in a statement. “It is the right thing to do, it is the moral thing to do, and it is a matter of legacy.”
Pressley has expressed particular concern over the 40 people on death row, as well as elderly, disabled or ill people serving sentences.
Mosby left off pardon list
Despite Biden’s actions being met with praise from some progressive Democrats, Biden’s pardons leave out certain people who had been touted as prospects for pardons, such as former Democratic Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who was convicted of mortgage fraud and perjury earlier this year.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, the Rev. Al Sharpton and activist Angela Rye have all urged Biden to pardon Mosby, whom they say was a political target for former President Trump.
In a letter to Biden just days after he pardoned his son, Crump and Rye called on Biden to consider pardoning Mosby.
“Marilyn Mosby is on house arrest right now with her law license hanging in the balance over purchasing property with her own money,” the two wrote.
“We welcome a conversation with President Biden to discuss ways to use his pardon power to free those ‘others’ who deserve justice also.”
On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also urged Biden to pardon Mosby.
“President Biden has to evaluate these things on a case-by-case basis, but, at the same time, go as big as possible, including looking at examples of aggressive prosecutions as it relates to people like Marilyn Mosby,” Jeffries said on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out.”
Although Mosby’s name was noticeably absent from the 39 pardon individuals, Crump still praised Biden’s actions, calling it a “historic step toward second chances and reducing sentencing disparities.”
“Marilyn Mosby should be next!” Crump added.
Updated on Dec. 13 at 9:19 a.m. EST
