Biden Commutes Sentences of Nearly 2,500 Nonviolent Drug Offenders, Setting a Presidential Clemency Record
On January 17, 2025, at the White House in Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden announced that he was commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses who are serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice. The White House later released the names of the 2,490 individuals receiving commutations.
"With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history," Biden said in a statement. The action, he said, provides relief for individuals who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes; as Congress recognized through the Fair Sentencing Act and the First Step Act, "it is time that we equalize these sentencing disparities."
Biden called the action "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." He said he was proud of his clemency record and would continue to review additional commutations and pardons in his final days in office.
The move was the latest in a series of end-of-term clemency actions. In December 2024, Biden had pardoned 39 people and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people on home confinement in a single day, and had also commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life without parole.
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：拜登2025年1月在白宫东厅签署法案。（Adam Schultz／白宫官方照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: President Biden signing legislation in the East Room of the White House in January 2025. (Adam Schultz, Official White House Photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
