BISMARCK, ND—U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland last week sent the U.S. pardon attorney a fierce email questioning Joe Biden’s recent decision to commute the sentences of about 1,500 federally convicted criminal cases.
During the pandemic, according to Inforum, previously incarcerated individuals were put on home confinement where they would be able to “successfully reintegrate” themselves into their communities and with family.
However, Judge Hovland questioned “the decisions, as least as it relates to some of those (incarcerated) who were sentenced in North Dakota,” wrote Inforum.
Judge Hovland found two cases, in particular, very troubling: the case of Hunter Hanson, who defrauded $11.4 million from farmers, and the case of “David McMaster, who was convicted of bank and wire fraud,” according to Inforum’s reporting.
Judge Hovland writes both cases failed to present sufficient evidence to “support a commutation. These cases were very sophisticated and egregious fraud scams that were devastating to honest, hard-working North Dakota victims,” said Inforum.
“I am certain the victims would be shocked and appalled to learn of the commutations, as are the prosecutors,” Judge Hovland wrote in his email.
Judge Hovland “also reviewed some of the drug trafficking-related commutations and none were for low-level, and non-violent offenders,” according to Inforum.
Judge Hovland claims, “It would seem that common sense would require at least a telephone call to those closely familiar with the case, or some contact with those who were victimized… Unfortunately, common sense is not as common as it used to be.”
Judge Hovland pressed for an “explanation as to how the cases were investigated, why the decision was made to commute the sentences, and why no one involved with any of the cases was contacted prior to the decision,” writes Inforum.
Serving as a U.S. District Court Judge since 2002, Judge Hovland concluded the “process by which the decisions were made to commute the sentences (are) alarming and troublesome at best,” according to Inforum.
“The clemency granted in these few North Dakota cases I reviewed does not advance equity and justice, nor promote public safety,” Judge Hovland argued, per Inforum.
