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WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden will commute the sentences of 1,499 people who were released from prison on home confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic, he announced on Thursday, and pardon 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes.
The largest single-day act of clemency in modern history comes after critics lashed Joe Biden for pardoning his son Hunter Biden on his felony tax and gun convictions, something he had repeatedly promised he would not do. The sweeping pardon offers his Hunter Biden nearly 11 years of immunity in a decision the president defended saying his son’s charges were politically motivated and a “miscarriage of justice.”
“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Joe Biden said in a statement. “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 nonviolent offenders especially those convicted of drug offenses.”
Among the 29 pardoned was Norman O’Neal Brown, a 56-year-old man who was convicted of nonviolent drug offenses when he was 22 years old. Had Brown been sentenced on the same offenses today, he likely would have received a shorter sentence, the White House said.
Former President Barack Obama commuted Brown’s sentence in 2015, 20 years into his prison term. Since then, Brown has worked with nonprofit groups organizations that support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people.
Biden said he would continue using his pardon and clemency power in the waning weeks of his administration, but didn’t provide specifics, like whether he’ll pardon the 40 inmates on federal death row before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.
Human rights activists, former corrections officers and families of crime victims have pushed him to do so, warning that Trump has repeatedly espoused his support for the death penalty, and during his first term restarted federal executions after a nearly 20-year pause.
Still, Thursday’s decision garnered praise from progressive Democrats who pushed for more clemency actions.
Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley called the decision a “meaningful and historic action.”
“Thanks to President Biden, today a near 1,500 families will have their lives changes forever and I congratulate each and every family on this new beginning,” she said in a statement.
She added that there is still much Biden can accomplish before Trump takes over.
“With 39 days remaining in his presidency, President Biden has the power to continue to use his clemency authority to change and save the lives of many other Americans behind the wall,” Pressley said. “It is the right thing to do, it is the moral thing to do and it is a matter of legacy.”
Retribution safeguards
Democrats have also suggested Biden can use his pardon power to preempt Trump’s promised “retribution” campaign, particularly protecting members of the House Jan. 6 Committee like Representative Liz Cheney, whom Trump accused of destroying evidence and suggested should be thrown in jail.
Biden has not indicated whether he will act on such suggestions. If he were to act, the pardons carry an imputation of guilt, according to the Supreme Court.
Progressives in Congress have also pushed for Biden to consider the case of Steven Donziger, an environmental attorney who was sentenced on criminal contempt charges in New York. The oil giant Chevron sued Donziger after the lawyer represented indigenous Ecuadorians whose rainforest home is now polluted by decades of oil development.
Though the case in Ecuador ended in a $9.8 billion verdict, Chevron later won a judgment in the Southern District of New York that said the verdict was obtained by fraud. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan presided and later charged Donziger personally — a rare move for a judge — after the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to pursue the case.
On Wednesday, 34 lawmakers sent Biden an open letter urging him to grant Donziger clemency. The group included Representative James McGovern, ranking member of the House Rules Committee; Representatives Jamie Raskin, Rashid Tlaib, Ted Lieu, Pramila Jayapal and Greg Casar; and Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Bernie Sanders.
“In light of the highly suspect charges against Mr. Donziger and their alarming connection to his work as an environmental lawyer, we ask that you exercise your power of executive clemency to issue a full and unconditional pardon for Mr. Donziger,” the lawmakers said.
Donziger was sentenced to six months in prison in October 2021 after serving nearly 800 days under house arrest in his Manhattan apartment.
He appealed his prosecution to the Supreme Court, which declined in March 2023 to review his case over dissent by Trump-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
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