Biden pardons 39 people

13/12/2024 6:14

Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden

said on Thursday he was pardoning 39 people convicted of

non-violent crimes and commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500

others who were serving long prison terms.



The pardons and clemency come over a week after the

president 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.



U.S. House member Ayanna Pressley, one of the lead Democrats

behind a letter to Biden last month urging him to issue clemency

to Americans with nonviolent offenses, commended the president

for taking "meaningful and historic action".



Her statement noted that he could take further steps to

exercise his power during his remaining 39 days in office.



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.