President Joe Biden announced Friday he is commuting 2,500 criminal sentences for nonviolent drug offenses he deems “disproportionately long.”
The latest in a growing string of clemency approvals gives Biden the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued with his son Hunter, who had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges, among those to benefit.
In December, Biden commuted the sentences for 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row, converting them to life in prison without parole, as Breitbart News reported.
The octogenarian said he is seeking to undo “disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice.”
“Today’s clemency action provides relief for individuals who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes,” Biden said in a statement.
“This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars.”
When a U.S. Senator, Biden had crafted a 1986 law that set this sentencing disparity, but backed ditching the guidelines, which happened in 2022.
The White House did not immediately release the names of those receiving commutations.
AP reports Friday’s action follows Biden’s commutations last month of the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the pardoning of 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.
That was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
