President Joe Biden commuted almost 1,500 jail sentences and granted 39 pardons, the White House announced early in the morning of Thursday, December 12. The commuted sentences were for prisoners who had been released to finish their sentences at home during the COVID-19 pandemic who have “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities,” and the 39 pardons were all for non-violent crimes, according to the announcement.
“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,” the White House claimed. This massive clemency action follows the president’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, for felony gun and tax charges, and it marks the largest single day of clemency in modern history.
Biden said he would continue to review clemency petitions in the coming weeks, so more executive action may follow. Before today, Barack Obama held the record with 330 grants of clemency in a single day shortly before leaving office in 2017.
