WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden announced On Friday, he announced he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes.
Biden – who has only three more days in the Oval Office – has granted a variety of pardons and commutations during his time in office. According to the White House, with Friday’s total, he has now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any other US president.
The commutations are aimed at people serving longer prison sentences than they would receive today under current law and practice.
Biden said in a statement Friday that the clemency measures provide relief for people who received “long prison sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine and outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes.”
“This action is an important step to right historic wrongs, address sentencing disparities, and give deserving people the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars,” Biden said.
He also said he would continue to consider further commutations and pardons.
In December Biden converted the sentences of 37 people on federal death row whose sentences were commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Three men accused of hate-motivated mass shootings and terrorism have been held on death row.
At the beginning of the month Biden commuted the sentences of around 1,500 people who were in home isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. He also pardoned 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes.
Biden was criticized for granting his son Hunter Biden a full and unconditional pardon in December for federal gun and tax crimes. The move was a piercing reversal of his previous position on the matter.
Last updated 4:04 p.m., January 17, 2025
