President Joe Biden announced his intention to commute the sentences of roughly 1,500 people released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as pardon 39 Americans convicted on nonviolent crimes, on Thursday (December 12) during what was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history, the New York Post reports.
The commuted sentences include individuals who served out at least one year of home confinement after being released from prisons -- which, at one point, had 1 in 5 people test positive for the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press -- in an effort to limit the spreading of the virus during the pandemic. Biden, 82, also vowed to take more steps toward reviewing clemency petitions in the coming weeks as his single-day act of clemency passed the record of 330 set by former President Barack Obama shortly before leaving office in 2017.
“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement obtained by the New York Post. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”
Biden pardoned his own son, Hunter, on December 1, despite previously claiming he wouldn't take action to help Hunter during the G7 summit in June. Hunter Biden, 54, was scheduled to be sentenced on separate federal gun and tax evasion cases later this month after pleading guilty in September to nine counts of evading the government of $1.4 million in taxes and being convicted of three federal gun charges for possessing a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine in June.
President Biden argued that his son was "selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted" in a pardon that covered all of his son's offenses between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024.