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December 12, 2024

Biden Commutes Sentences of 1,500 Nonviolent Offenders in Largest-Ever Presidential Clemency
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President Biden announced he is commuting the sentences of some 1,500
people and pardoning another 39, in what the White House says is the
largest single-day act of presidential clemency. The commutations will
affect people who were transferred from prison to home confinement
during the pandemic. The pardons involve nonviolent crimes, including
drug offenses. Advocates are pressing Biden to commute federal death
sentences before leaving office, as well as pardon or grant clemency to
high-profile figures facing political persecution, including human
rights lawyer Steven Donziger, Assata Shakur, Leonard Peltier and Edward
Snowden.


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