President Joe Biden announced Friday that he would commute 2,500 sentences for nonviolent drug offenses he deemed “disproportionately long.”
With the latest approval in a growing series of pardon approvals, Biden set a presidential record for issuing the most individual pardons and commutations.
The president's son Hunter, who pleaded guilty to tax violations and was sentenced on firearms charges, is among the beneficiaries despite months of opposition.
As Breitbart News reported, in December, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates, converting them to life in prison without parole.
The 80-year-old said he was seeking the reversal of a “proportionally long sentence compared to what he would receive today under current laws, policies and practices.”
“Today's clemency action provides relief to individuals who received long sentences under outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes that challenged the distinction between crack and powder cocaine,” Biden said in a statement.
“This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, closing sentencing disparities, and providing opportunities for deserving individuals to return to their families and communities after spending too much time in prison. ”
Biden enacted the 1986 law establishing this sentencing disparity when he was a senator, but he supported repealing the guidelines in 2022.
The White House did not immediately release the names of those receiving the reductions.
AP report Friday's action is as follows Biden resigned from Congress last month It included part of the sentences of about 1,500 people released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as clemency for 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.
This was the largest one-day act of amnesty in modern history.
“I'm proud of my record on pardons and will continue to consider additional commutations and pardons,” Biden said Friday, hinting that more presidential pardons could be on the horizon. .
