Biden issues record wave of commutations and 39 pardons

President Joe Biden on Thursday issued a record wave of commutations and pardons, the largest ever granted by a president in a single day.

In one declaration issued by the White House, the administration wrote that Biden is “commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed in residential care during the COVID-19 pandemic and have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.”

The president will also pardon 39 people who were convicted of non-violent crimes, including drug offenses. The pardons granted to drug offenders — many of whom were incarcerated for low-level marijuana-related offenses — partly respond to a plea from Democratic lawmakers for the outgoing president to end efforts to limit marijuana prosecutions at the federal level before he leaves office office, and grant clemency to those convicted of weed-related charges.

“The President is committed to granting clemency to individuals convicted of non-violent crimes who were sentenced under outdated laws, policies and practices that left them with longer sentences than if the individuals were convicted today,” the White House wrote . “While today’s announcement marks important progress, there is more to come. President Biden will continue to review pardons and deliver criminal justice reform in a way that promotes equity and justice, promotes public safety, supports rehabilitation and reentry, and provides meaningful new opportunities.”

This mass pardon comes on the heels of a controversial decision by Biden to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, despite previously saying he would not. The younger Biden was convicted on charges of federal tax violations and illegal gun possession.

BIden argued that the prosecution of his son was politically motivated and that “no reasonable person looking at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than that Hunter was singled out only because he is my son— and that’s wrong.”

As the president feels clemency, lawyers are asking him to use his clemency powers in a meaningful way. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, the death penalty loving Trump is preparing to quickly repeal guidelines halting federal executions under Biden, reviving the “killing spree” — as one source put it — Trump led in his first term.

Lawyers and inmates on federal death row hope that Biden, who once pledged to “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and encourage states to follow the federal government’s lead,” will commute their death sentences to avoid an execution.