BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Joe Biden has issued presidential pardons to 39 Americans convicted of non-violent crimes, and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House described it as the most acts of presidential clemency issued in a single day. It has not given the names of the people involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Constitution decrees that a president has the broad “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, Biden issued a controversial pardon to his son Hunter, which continued a recent trend of presidents pardoning people close to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Announcing the move, Biden said those pardoned had “shown successful rehabilitation and have shown commitment to making their communities stronger and safer”. Their non-violent convictions included drug offences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The commuted sentences were for hundreds of people who were placed in home confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic, and who were facing sentences which Biden deemed to be too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have “shown that they deserve a second chance”, Biden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Giving further details of the move, the White House said those receiving relief included a decorated military veteran and pilot who helped fellow church members, a nurse who helped with the Covid vaccine rollout, and an addiction counsellor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden promised “more steps in the weeks ahead”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president will leave the White House on 20 January 2025, when his successor Donald Trump is inaugurated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden previously had a record of pardoning fewer people than most presidents in modern US history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump granted 237 acts of clemency during his first term in the White House, according to the Pew Research Center. These included 143 pardons and 94 commuted sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many were in a flurry before he left office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden’s decision earlier this month to pardon his son, Hunter, continued a trend of presidents on both sides of the US political divide – including Trump – granting clemency to people close to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden Jr was facing sentencing for two criminal cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move has proven controversial, since the outgoing president previously ruled out such a move. But he claimed the cases against his son were politically motivated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: US President Joe Biden has issued presidential pardons to 39 Americans convicted of non-violent crimes, and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 other people. The White House described it as the most acts of presidential clemency issued in a single day. It has not given the names of the people involved. The US Constitution decrees that a president has the broad “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”. Earlier this month, Biden issued a controversial pardon to his son Hunter, which continued a recent trend of presidents pardoning people… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43774,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43772\/revisions\/43774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}