Biden Issues First Pardons and Commutations as President
Summary from the AllSides News Team
President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he granted clemency to 78 individuals.
The moves mark the first time Biden has used his constitutional clemency powers as president. Three people were pardoned, and 75 received commutations of their sentences. All are people who were convicted of low-level drug offenses or nonviolent crimes. Two of the pardons were people with low-level drug offenses, and the third was given to an 86-year-old former U.S. Secret Service agent who was accused of trying to sell a copy of a Secret Service file in 1964.
Reports across the spectrum highlighted how all the people granted clemency were nonviolent offenders. Reports from left- and center-rated sources often highlighted the community service performed by some of the people Biden pardoned. Coverage from the right more often focused on the specific details of the offenses in question. One report from Washington Examiner highlighted Biden's low approval ratings and connected them to purported public discontent with Biden's approach to criminal justice.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
Biden pardons former Secret Service agent and 2 others
President Joe Biden has granted the first three pardons of his term, providing clemency to a Kennedy-era Secret Service agent convicted of federal bribery charges that he tried to sell a copy of an agency file and to two people who were convicted on drug-related charges but went on to become pillars in their communities.
The Democratic president also commuted the sentences of 75 others for nonviolent, drug-related convictions. The White House announced the clemencies Tuesday as it launched a series of job training and reentry programs for those in prison...
From the Right
Biden reveals first pardons and commutations of his administration
President Joe Biden is commemorating Second Chance Month by announcing the first pardons and commutations of his administration.
Abraham Bolden, an 86-year-old former Secret Service agent who maintains he was wrongly convicted of trying to sell a copy of a Secret Service file, Betty Jo Bogans, a 51-year-old first-time offender who served seven years in prison for transporting crack cocaine for her boyfriend and his accomplice, and Dexter Jackson, a 52-year-old man who allowed marijuana dealers to meet buyers in his pool hall, were the three former inmates pardoned of their crimes, according to...
From the Left
Biden Announces The First Pardons Of His Presidency
President Joe Biden announced Tuesday morning that he has granted clemency to 78 individuals, all of whom were convicted of low-level drug offenses or nonviolent crimes. Three people were pardoned, and 75 received commutations of their sentences.
It’s the first time Biden has exercised his constitutional clemency powers as president. Many of the people granted commutations were convicted years ago of crimes that today carry much lighter sentences. In a call with reporters Monday evening, White House officials said that if the people who received clemency were charged or convicted of any...
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