Joe Biden, who leaves office next week, announced Friday commuting the sentences of about 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes, saying he has issued more individual pardons and commutations than any of his predecessors to date.
The president said in a statement that those benefiting from Friday’s action “are serving sentences that are disproportionately long compared to what they would receive today under current laws, policies, and practices.” said.
The move provides amnesty to individuals sentenced based on the discredited distinction between crack and powder cocaine and outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes, according to a statement released by the White House.
The unprecedented wave of commutations reflects a last-minute push by the Biden administration to correct what critics have long described as systemic inequities in federal drug sentencing.
“Too often, our nation’s criminal justice reform is applied only to future laws, leaving behind the very people and injustices that moved us to change,” Zoe Towns, executive director of FWD.us, said in a statement. “
It is also one of the most important large-scale amnesty actions in U.S. history, addressing the controversial sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine that disproportionately impacts communities of color. be. The policy, shaped in part by Biden’s own 1994 crime bill, has long been criticized by reform advocates.
In December, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates, converting them to life without parole before Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office on January 20.
In the same month, it announced that it would pardon 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes and commute the sentences of nearly 1,500 others who were serving long prison terms.
Biden has faced criticism for pardoning his son Hunter, who pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms charges.
Defense attorneys and civil rights organizations are stepping up efforts to focus on hot-button cases and assist those who they believe have been wrongfully convicted or are serving excessive sentences for nonviolent crimes. We have started a campaign to
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Presidents typically order a series of pardons toward the end of their terms.
President Trump has promised to pardon at least some of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Report contributed by Reuters
