Days before he got kicked out, Biden did a last ditch commuting of sentences. This time, the number of commutations reached 2,500. They were all people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and who are serving longer sentences than they would if the same crime was convicted today.
“This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars,” Biden said.
After this batch, Biden has more pardons and commutations under his belt than any president in history.
It’s unclear how many of these commutations effect marijuana convictions, but there are certainly a number of them in here. Many of the convictions commuted were to fix the distinction there once was between crack and powder cocaine.
Now that Trump is in office, the link to the official statement has been taken down.
So long, Joe! And thanks for the pardons.
Read the original piece over at Penn Capital-Star.
