President Joe Biden will commute the sentences of almost 1,500 offenders and pardon 39 others, in what the White House said early Thursday was the biggest number of commutations and clemencies granted in a single day.
Explaining what may become a defining act in the dying days of his presidency, Biden said in a statement: “America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances.”Biden continued.
The 39 pardoned individuals were all convicted of "non-violent crimes".
President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 330 offenders in one of his final acts before leaving office in 2017, then the biggest single batch of commutations in history.
"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 statement said.
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