Obama has nearly doubled his total in one month With 111 more commutations
President Obama passed another 111 commutations, adding on to the 214 he issued weeks ago. He has used his clemency power more times than the last ten presidents combined, according to the Department of Justice.
President Obama commuted the sentences of 111 more federal inmates Tuesday, capping a month in which he's nearly doubled the number of commutations granted during his presidency.
The breakneck pace of presidential clemency comes as the Obama White House attempts to get through a backlog of 11,477 cases that were pending as of August 11. In addition to the 325 commutations granted this month, Obama also quietly denied 2,227 cases on August 8.
President Obama passed another 111 commutations, adding on to the 214 he issued weeks ago. He has used his clemency power more times than the last ten presidents combined, according to the Department of Justice.
President Obama commuted the sentences of 111 more federal inmates Tuesday, capping a month in which he's nearly doubled the number of commutations granted during his presidency.
The breakneck pace of presidential clemency comes as the Obama White House attempts to get through a backlog of 11,477 cases that were pending as of August 11. In addition to the 325 commutations granted this month, Obama also quietly denied 2,227 cases on August 8.
The commutations — a shortening of a criminal sentence using the president's constitutional pardon power — are part of the Obama administration's two-year old clemency initiative.
As Congress has shortened the sentences for drug crimes, it's also failed to make many of those reduced sentences retroactive — a disparity Obama is trying to correct by through unilaterally action.
About a third of Obama's 673 commutations to date have been for people serving life sentences.
"They are individuals who received unduly harsh sentences under outdated laws for committing largely nonviolent drug crimes, for example, the 35 individuals whose life sentences were commuted today," White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said in a blog post Tuesday. "For each of these applicants, the President considers the individual merits of each application to determine that an applicant is ready to make use of his or her second chance."
Obama vigorously defended his use of commutations at a news conference earlier this month, saying a bipartisan consensus is emerging around reforming unduly harsh drug sentences. But with those efforts stalled on Capitol Hill, he said he needed to act.
