Vanguard News Desk Editor
WASHINGTON, DC – The day before a Friday the 13th—a traditional day of bad luck—President Joe Biden announced granting pardons to 39 people, and granting clemency to nearly 1,500 others.
The clemency list can be found at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/12/clemency-recipient-list-7/
The number, according to the White House, reflects the most people ever receiving clemency in a single day—Biden said he commuted people “who have shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer.”
The President also is commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals put on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.”
The full pardon to 39 people go to those, the White House stated, convicted of non-violent crimes.
“While today’s announcement marks important progress, there is more to come. President Biden will continue to review clemency petitions and deliver criminal justice reform in a manner that advances equity and justice, promotes public safety, supports rehabilitation and reentry, and provides meaningful second chances,” according to the WH statement.
The statement added, “Together, these actions build on the President’s record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society. The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms.
“He is also the first President ever to issue categorical pardons to individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana, and to former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of private conduct because of their sexual orientation.”
The WH promised, “In the coming weeks, the President will take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations.”
The act of clemency “targeted those who had been released from prison and placed in home confinement during the pandemic. Recipients include people who were convicted of drug crimes, Medicare fraud and illegally prescribing opioids. Some were convicted as young adults only to serve in the military, help charities or train local firefighters,” wrote the New York Times.
Biden also told the Times. “America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” noting, many of those receiving clemency may have received lower sentences under new laws .
Biden has also been urged by some Democratic lawmakers and anti-death penalty groups, like the ACLU, to “reduce the sentences of all 40 people on death row to life without parole because Donald Trump supports the death penalty.
And Biden’s staff have been “debating whether he should issue blanket pardons for a number of Trump’s perceived enemies to protect them from retribution,” the NY Times reports.
The WH said those receiving relief include “a nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters and who helped spearhead vaccination efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose, make better choices, and refrain from destructive behaviors and gang involvement (and) a decorated military veteran and pilot who spends much of his time helping his fellow church members who are in poor health or unable to perform strenuous tasks.”
“As the President has said, the United States is a nation of second chances. The President recognizes how the clemency power can advance equal justice under law and remedy harms caused by practices of the past,” said the WH in a public statement.
The WH explained the nearly 1,500 individuals who received commutations “have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the COVID-era CARES Act. These Americans have been reunited with their families and shown their commitment to rehabilitation by securing employment and advancing their education.
“The 39 individuals receiving pardons today were convicted of non-violent crimes, including drug offenses, and have turned their lives around. These individuals are parents, veterans, health care professionals, teachers, advocates, and engaged members of their communities. Many of them have used their experiences in the criminal justice system to inspire and encourage others.”
Biden has taken, said the WH, “several bold clemency actions throughout his Administration, including granting clemency in 2022 – three pardons and 75 commutations – for people with drug-related offenses and some individuals on CARES Act home confinement.”
In December 2022, the President granted clemency/six pardons to recipients with various drug- and alcohol-related offenses; in April 2023, the President granted clemency/31 commutations to recipients on CARES Act home confinement; and in December 2023 and April 2024, Biden noted he granted 11 pardons and 16 commutations to individuals sentenced for non-violent drug offenses.
“These individual actions have helped to transform these individuals’ lives and positively impact their communities. Federal convictions make it difficult to secure housing, jobs, educational opportunities, benefits, and health care; all essential to living a healthy and productive life…(Biden) has taken steps to unlock doors of opportunity that would have otherwise remained closed to these recipients, who deserve a second chance,” said the WH.
The President also pardoned groups of people—more than any other President, including “full, complete, and unconditional categorical pardon for the offense of simple possession of marijuana…offenses of simple possession of marijuana (and) a full, complete, and unconditional categorical pardons to certain former military service persons convicted of offenses based on their sexual orientation, specifically unaggravated offenses based on consensual, private conduct with persons age 18 and older.”
“The President’s categorical approach to clemency has also inspired leaders across the country to take similar action. Over 10 states and localities, including Maryland and Massachusetts, have issued categorical clemency for marijuana convictions, impacting hundreds of thousands of people and allowing individuals to move past their convictions and move on with their daily lives,” noted the WH in its statement.
Let’s add to this that Biden pardoned his own son and absolved him of any crimes that he did for the past 11 years. Not a nice round number like 10, but 11. Why is that? I think everyone knows…
At this point I don’t think Biden has a clue at what’s going on. His staff puts a stack of papers in front of him and tells him to sign.
So Biden isn’t actually doing anything, it’s all coming from unelected staffers.
Trump is already acting like the defacto President. The world knows it.
“The majesty of the law demands that we be equal—that only our acts count, and not the person who committed them. The act of forgiving, on the contrary, takes the person into account; no pardon pardons murder or theft but only the murderer or the thief.” – Hannah Arendt
One of the beautiful people that Biden pardoned. Biden is so forgiving…
“The corrupt former Pennsylvania judge convicted of funneling juveniles to for-profit detention facilities in exchange for $2.1 million in kickbacks had his lengthy prison sentence commuted Thursday by President Biden.”
“I am shocked and I am hurt,” Sandy Fonzo, whose son committed suicide after he was locked up as part of the scheme orchestrated by Conahan and former judge Mark Ciavarella, said in a statement.”
https://nypost.com/2024/12/12/us-news/biden-slammed-for-commuting-sentence-of-notorious-kids-for-cash-judge-michael-conahan/
“Conahan, 72, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges for his role in the scheme and was sentenced to 17½ years in prison in 2011. ”
So he served 13 years of 17.5 year sentence, he’s in his seventies, and people are complaining about it? Remember, federal prison doesn’t have parole, if he got sentenced in state prison, he’d be out already. And he’s going to be in home confinement. What possible purpose does forcing him to stay in a prison on federal expense serve?