Biden issues record clemency and pardons for nearly 1,500

President Joe Biden will issue clemency on Thursday for nearly 1,500 people sentenced to home confinement and 39 individuals who were convicted of non-violent crimes, theGrio is first to report. 

President Biden’s executive action is the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history by any American president.

“Mercy is being granted” for “proven rehabilitation” efforts, according to a source at the White House close to the clemency process. The commutations involve individuals who served out their sentences in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and successfully reintegrated into their families and communities. 

The president is also pardoning 39 Americans who were convicted of non-violent crimes, including those with military service, a nurse, and an addiction counselor. The names of those mentioned are not being released publicly to respect their privacy. 

The White House source also told theGrio that today’s actions will impact tens of thousands of people, as his clemency actions are expected to prompt other leaders across the country to take similar action. 

During his presidency, Biden issued pardons and commutations for some non-violent marijuana convictions. Governors in Maryland and Massachusetts exercised similar clemency powers on the state level, which has impacted hundreds of thousands of people.

President Biden’s executive action is said to strike a “balance” between “criminal justice reform and public safety.”

Some of those whose cases are being commuted will be released this month, while others part of the clemency will be freed around March 2025.

At this point, the president has not announced anticipated preemptive pardons for political figures deemed in the crosshairs of President-elect Donald Trump. However, a source close to this effort strongly affirms the clemency process is not over as “these numbers are historic, and we still have work to do.” The source added, “We will still continue reviewing applications for pardons and commutations.” 

The source would not quantify the number of clemency requests currently under review by the Justice Department’s Office of Pardon Attorney or how many have been reviewed. Generally, there is a clemency “uptick” in the final year of a presidency.

The Biden administration will end on Jan. 20, 2025, at noon Eastern and has until then to announce any clemency actions. 

This is the first set of pardons since Hunter Biden, the president’s son, was pardoned on Dec. 2.