Amnesties, Commutations and Pardons
Biden Pardons Thousands of People Convicted of Simple Marijuana Possession
Udi Ofer, a Princeton University professor and former deputy national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said simple possession of marijuana is a crime “almost entirely prosecuted by the states.” The federal government tends to prosecute marijuana trafficking crimes, he said. Only 92 people were sentenced on federal marijuana possession charges in 2017, […]
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Biden Uses Clemency Powers for the First Time
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Tuesday used his clemency powers for the first time to commute the sentences of 75 drug offenders and issue three pardons, including to the first Black Secret Service agent to work on a presidential detail, who had long maintained he had been wrongfully convicted. “I think I’m in a state […]
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Peru’s Top Court Reinstates Pardon for Former President Alberto Fujimori
LIMA — Peru’s top court issued a ruling Thursday to release the former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori from prison, where he has served less than 15 years of a 25-year sentence for committing human rights abuses during his dictatorship in the 1990s. In a 4-to-3 decision, justices of Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal reinstated the controversial 2017 […]
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Supporters Seek Clemency for Native American Activist Convicted in Killings
WASHINGTON — Since 1977, Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist, has been serving two life sentences in federal prison for his role in the killings of two F.B.I. agents during a shootout in 1975 on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota — a punishment that his supporters have long held was the product of […]
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Murderer Pardoned by Kentucky’s Former Governor Is Sentenced Again
Among them was Mr. Baker, whose family hosted a fund-raiser for Mr. Bevin that raised more than $21,000 in 2018, according to The Courier-Journal, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for its reporting on the pardons. Mr. Baker will receive credit for the two and a half years he previously served in state prison, […]
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South Korea to Pardon Former President Park Geun-hye
SEOUL, South Korea — The government of President Moon Jae-in said on Friday that it would pardon former President Park Geun-hye, who is serving a 20-year prison term after she was convicted on bribery and other criminal charges. Ms. Park, 69, who became the first democratically elected South Korean leader to be removed from office […]
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Oklahoma Governor Commutes Julius Jones’s Death Sentence
In a statement, Amanda Bass, a lawyer for Mr. Jones, said that Mr. Stitt’s decision would restore “public faith in the criminal justice system.” While the legal team had hoped the governor would leave open the possibility of parole, she said, “we are grateful that the governor has prevented an irreparable mistake.” Not everyone was […]
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