Outgoing US president says move is ‘important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities’. Is he mad? Seems so.
United States President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of drug crimes just days before his White House term ends.
In a statement on Friday, Biden said the individuals granted clemency were “serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice”.
“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in US history,” he said.
The announcement comes as the Democrat has authorised pardons and commuted sentences for scores of people before his successor, Republican Donald Trump, takes office on Monday.
In December, Biden commuted the sentences for 37 of the 40 federal inmates facing the death penalty, converting them to life in prison without parole.
He also announced that same month that he pardoned 39 people convicted of crimes and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 others who were serving long prison terms.
Source: alJazeera