The701
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"America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances. 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."
Those 1,499 people were released from prison during covid and placed under home confinement.
The 39 people pardoned were in prison for non-violent offenses.
https://apnews.com/4432002d67334e6716c2776fd73f3cc8
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/12/clemency-recipient-list-7/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/12/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-providing-clemency-for-nearly-1500-individuals-on-home-confinement-and-pardons-for-39-individuals-convicted-of-non-violent-crimes/
How many people does the US incarcerate? A lot. Scroll through:
https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/
nothisagain
Now do Luigi
fallenpenguin82
He needs to lock up Trump for having/handling guns while being a felon.
itmightnotbeme
Whenever I see this sort of news I imagine some guy in a red hat, crying and saying "but the emails." because he really doesn't understand anything.
DotCommie
One of those pardons includes a scumbag that stole over 50million from my friends state. She's the worst kind of person, I don't care if she's non-violent.
He also included huge pedophiles in that group, 1 of which I think was a trade to China for some American in their jails, but still, he's no saint and there's no way Biden was the one who went through all this and decided. He doesn't know where he is at this point.
Also, Hunter pardoned for anything in the last 10yrs? wtf?!
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FrogBotherer
I expect the simplest answer is most people probably get away with quite a lot of petty crimes in a decade that would not normally be worth prosecuting. But with a Trump crony at the helm of the DoJ you could guarantee they'll try their hardest to dig up even more spurious crimes just to see him back behind bars out of spite.
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TheOvy
Trump's going to top this record on day 1... by pardoning everyone charged for Jan 6th, sigh. USA really failed those of us in the DC area. He attacked our home, and now he and his followers get a pass. America did not look out for us.
KommanderKayriel
I dragged my black ass out on my walker to go vote here in Georgia. America did its part. The Nazis were more numerous than we thought, and yes I'm including the people 'just worried about groceries' and the non-voters in that, too.
YellowSparrow
Know what would be hilarious? If Biden pardoned the J6 people right before leaving office. Obviously they should not be pardoned, but they will be. Biden could deprive Trump of the photo op.
KommanderKayriel
Supreme Court did rule a president on his way out can do anything he wants, any crime a sitting president does is fair, right? He could save us the horrible dystopian future of death and suffering.
StewedTomaters
I guess he could, if "owning the conservs" in really dumb ways was more important than the law. But that's more of a right wing move than a centrist move, so I don't see it.
DangerTrain
Calling it a "gun crime" is a bit of a fuckin stretch.
trippingthelightfantastic
Polymathena
Amazing photo deserves a credit
Weblord
Jonathan Ernst - Reuters
PrinceMaxx7
Non violent crimes.
Meanwhile, Trump pardoned Michael Chase Behenna (convicted of unpremeditated murder)
Mathew L. Golsteyn (Premeditated murder)
Clint Lorance (2 counts murder and attempted murder)
Nicholas Abram Slatten, Paul Alvin Slough, Evan Shawn Liberty, and Dustin Laurent Heard all Blackwater contractors convicted of killing at least 14 Iraqi civilians.
ChorizoPig
Fucking war criminals.
FlintNorth44
It became a meme to hate Biden. For all the bad he supposedly did...there's twice as good. Now we will see what the US looks like under a dictatorship.
Sh4d0wM4nt1s
If we're lucky, we end up being as bad of a dictatorship as we are as a 'normal' country.
Sh4d0wM4nt1s
Although, there are ways of nudging things in that direction and I do hope that ends up happening.
DidItForScience
How about vacating some weed convictions?
AnonOmis1000
What is clemency in this context?
The701
In the case of the 1,499, their sentences were commuted.
So as I understand it, a pardon makes the legal system treat it as if the determination of guilt never happened, and the person is now entirely innocent of that crime.
Commuting a sentence just makes a punishment go away, but the criminal record still remains.
brownribbon
Damn, if only there were several links in the post that you could read to learn more detail. But alas!
RomanSnow
brownribbon
Yes, Anon’s post was shite.
AnonOmis1000
brownribbon
Ask a question to other people about the content of the article.
ComradeBinch
Ok, but i just want to point out
Scar1203
Meh, they recovered 9 million of it by selling off her assets and received damages of 40 million from their outside auditors and bank. She'd been a part of a home confinement program since 2021 that was initiated due to covid after serving 8.5 years in prison. Releasing her isn't some egregious miscarriage of justice and she'll never be in a position to repeat her crimes again, I don't personally think being stuck at home and monitored to some minor degree is a massive punishment anyways.
brassmule
Dunno why Rita Crundwell was one of tbem. Largest municipal embezzlement in history and her sentence gets commuted less than 1/3rd through?
Wolfshead009
That one bugs me as well. She absolutely RUINED that poor town and now she is free? Fuck her.
brassmule
Or the guy who got pardoned after being convicted of possessing 47,000 CP images. Pardoned?!!
thatiscomedygoldrightthere
Leonard Peltier?
MeestowKitty
Oh course not Leonard Peltier. Then people might think that they can stand up to the government in any way. Plus, he's not white. And we all know the rules for..."them." /s
nocheese
"Rules for thee but none for me"
BatDoc
Pardon Luigi? While we’re at it?
KommanderKayriel
Killing a CEO isn't a violent crime, it's self-defense.
cgt9803
Trump only pardons people who commit crimes to benefit him.
curolina
I thought he pardoned a bunch of nonviolent offenders last time he was president. Worked with Kim Kardashian or something. I'll take whatever wins I can if even if it's a deal with the devil.
michaeloberg
And Navy Seals who slaughtered innocent children and civilians so much HIS OWN UNIT fucked with his sniper scope to try to limit his psycho murders
nocheese
Good grief. I think you copy and pasted the wrong text. It's OK, happens to the best.
HighImpactSexualViolence
I mean, no, that one's accurate. According to basically everyone who was ever near him in Iraq, Eddie Gallagher apparently did incredibly seriously fucked up shit.
ChorizoPig
Or if they just flat-out pay him for a pardon.
thelonepig
Serious question... Can he pardon Luigi? I'm not sure he should cause sounds like Luigi would def do it again, but COULD he?
tidepool
I think he can only pardon federal inmates. It’s a murder charge in NY but since he was found in PA maybe there are federal charges? NAL but that’s where his power ends. Hence why Trump can’t pardon himself in all of the criminal cases that are state charges.
JustDriftingAboutTheInterWebs
Huh, imagine that. Granting clemency and pardons without expecting money and favors in return. Crazy how a real president can act...
GigiDundas
Oh they're going to spin this to make him a bad guy somehow
fillerbunny9
Getting this shitstain’s sentence commuted is a good start.
https://www.citizensvoice.com/2024/12/12/biden-commutes-sentence-for-kids-for-cash-judge/
Crowlands
It's easy for them to find a way, when you remember conservatives aren't people, but in fact malevolent spirits wearing the flesh of humans, driven to seek only to bring about pain and destruction upon the human race.
I'm joking, but it would explain a lot...
demoncatmara
Unfortunately, that sounds exactly like people. Some are amazing, especially here on imgur. But we've spent maybe 300,000 years killing each other too
bluerazzgummy
He shouldn’t have pardoned his own son
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bluerazzgummy
Doesn’t mean he should have
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bluerazzgummy
Take a deep breath man. I was just saying he shouldn’t have. Jfc lmao
Vamp13
his sons pardon is still objectively wrong. i think pardon power needs to go the way of the dodo in general tbh. it should take SC lead, senate majority, senate minority, VP and Pres in agreement to grant a pardon.
fillerbunny9
When the incoming administration has openly admitted to wanting to go after political enemies, while simultaneously his son’s charges would have resulted in a fine normally, I’m gonna call that one a wash.
Garn0123
It's one of the checks the Executive has in the whole checks and balances hullabaloo.
JackSmiles2
Sure, so long as we can agree that the reason why it's wrong is because that's how it is supposed to be in a normal functioning government. That we have long since not had one, it's a drop in the ocean. The only reason it is going to be bad is because the extreme left won't shut up about it and the right will never shut up about it despite ../checks notes being absolute complete hypocrites. It's bad sure but it also does not actually mean fuck all. It's not a new norm or the start of one.
Vamp13
It's definitely not a new Norm, it's just wrong, it's also wrong to go after political enemies, I get why he's doing it. I'm just unhappy about the situation. And absolutely the rights are hypocrates, I wouldn't consider any of trumps 2019 pardons legal. All of them were self-serving.
Raventhief
Too bad he couldn't do a blanket pardon for marijuana-related crimes.
ThomasThundersword
he did. for federal.
OkButWhyWereTheyFilming
Also he could commute all federal death penalty sentences.
captainhappen
He did. In 2022.
SamaelQliphoth
Relevant username ahoy.
lilbrother
But He did do that! At least for Federal possession convictions anyway.
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/presidential-proclamation-marijuana-possession
mithiwithi
He already did as much of that as he could, but most of the people in prison for pot are on state charges.
blaghart
Too bad he couldn't pardon all the other federal criminals, like, say, illegal immigrants currently in the US
FrancsTireur
Surprised no one else has mentioned that. That's why this list and everything he does and has done are forever just another democrat failing to live up to their supposed ideals.
There's literally no downside, none.
What the GOP is gonna yell at him and call Americas borders open for the 15 millionth time?.
blaghart
Exactly. He's spent his entire career refusing to oppose fascism and it's got us here.
BufferingForever
I’m not sure he can. Being undocumented is literally not a crime. (In a lot of ways, it would be better if it was— folks would be entitled to representation in deportation proceedings, for example, plus they would get juries and the right to a speedy trial.) Immigration is kind of more like administrative law.
blaghart
He absolutely can, the same way he can order ICE to close their concentration camps and hasn't. crossing the US border without permission is illegal under over 100 laws, all of them aimed at enforcing racist immigration quotas.
BeardicPerformance
But they’re mostly not felonies. Which means there’s no conviction to pardon. It would (legally) be like getting a pardon for a speeding ticket.
And, even if he did, unless he also granted them citizenship, they could just get grabbed again the next day because they’re STILL not here legally.
It’s a fucked up system but there’s not a lot one guy can do to safeguard things under the next guy’s administration.
blaghart
if he pardons them he would pardon them in a manner that would legalize them being here so no, that's not at all how it would work.
The701
That could still be on the way.
"I will take more steps in the weeks ahead. My Administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances."
4etherling
He already did that
The701
I went and looked into it quick before work. Thank you for the comment. https://npr.org/1127">2410">https://npr.org/1127302410 and https://npr.org/1221230390 "More than 6,500 people were convicted of simple possession between 1992 and 2021 under federal law, and thousands more under D.C. code, the officials said. Biden had promised the action during his campaign. However, most convictions happen at the state level, leaving those pardons up to each governor." @Raventhief So Biden's limited in what he can do there.
battleofhastings1066
Even if he did, he can only pardon Federal crimes.
myeyesthegogglesdonothing
He DID parden marijuana offenses. The problem is that if you're getting federal marijuana charges, there's probably more to it. If I recall, it was mostly people that like got caught smoking a joint in a national park.
battleofhastings1066
Mou5e
I know an Italian guy who needs one.
Raventhief
Like I said, too bad he couldn't...
captainhappen
He literally did pardon everyone federal marijuana possession in 2022. It already happened.
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Gayforbae
You know it doesn't, he did all he legally could. He's not king.
RatKingCerf
Do you not know what federal pardon means? He can't affect state based jurisdiction
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Wolvenlight
No because presidents can only pardon federal crimes.
Your governor could pardon state crimes. But that would require voters knowing how our government works, instead of assuming the president runs all three branches of every level of government.