After more than a year in office, US President Joe Biden yesterday granted amnesty to 75 people whose criminal records include federal convictions for non-violent drug trafficking.
The president commuted the sentences of 75 people who had been placed under house arrest during the coronavirus pandemic. This is the first leniency step taken by Joe Biden, a step long overdue by human rights advocates and lawmakers and one that the administration has been pressed on repeatedly.
While not the mass amnesty campaigners have been calling for, it is a first step toward fulfilling a Joe Biden campaign promise.
“America is a nation of laws and second chances, of redemption and rehabilitation,” Joe Biden said in a statement.
“Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, religious leaders, civil rights advocates and law enforcement officials agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect these core values that enable safer and stronger communities. »
Today, I am pardoning three people who are striving every day to give back and contribute to their communities. I am also commuting the sentences of 75 people who are serving long sentences for non-violent drug offences.
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 26, 2022
The president said many of the people he is granting remission ‘would have received a lesser sentence had they been charged with the same offense today, thanks to the bipartisan law. First Step Act“, signed into law by his predecessor, President Donald Trump.
Along with the 75 commutations, Mr. Biden also granted three pardons.
The US President continues to oppose the legalization of cannabis, despite growing bipartisan support for this policy change. The White House, however, seems willing to provide some relief to those caught up in the war on drugs that Joe Biden himself helped perpetuate when he was a senator.
