What Biden’s historic commutations mean

Geoff Bennett:

Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Biden announced today that he's commuting the prison sentences of some 1,500 people and issuing pardons to 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes.

Amna Nawaz:

That marks the largest number of commutations by a president in a single day.

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary:

As the president has said before, America was founded on the premise of second chances. For far too long, our criminal justice system has closed doors of opportunity for too many people who should have the chance to once again participate in daily life and contribute to their communities.

Amna Nawaz:

Lisa Desjardins has more on the clemencies.

Lisa Desjardins:

Amna and Geoff, most of the people affected by this grant have been serving sentences under home confinement, thanks to provision put in place during the COVID epidemic.

Now their sentences have been commuted. In addition, 39 people have had their convictions fully pardoned, all for nonviolent offenses, including drug offenses. The list includes Americans who served time for crimes committed in their teens or early 20s, and several are military veterans.

Until now, Biden has approved fewer clemencies than most recent presidents.

Mark Osler is a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, an expert on presidential clemency. And he joins us now for a deeper dive.

Mark, thank you so much.

Clemency is a unique power of presidents. And, to start, I just want to go over terms, remind our audience what we're talking about. A pardon is something that forgives a crime and allows that person to regain some status, including the ability to vote. Commutations reduce penalties, including jail time or sometimes fines, but they don't change their status.

You said this is a big day, including for one of your clients, who is one of those who was pardoned. To help us understand this group, can you talk about her and what this pardon means?

Mark Osler, Former Federal Prosecutor:

So out of that smaller group of people who got a pardon, as opposed to a commutation, we saw Sarah Carlson.

Sarah Carlson is somebody who submitted her petition with the help of one of my students back in 2020 and has waited for years for this pardon. She's someone who was involved in drugs, was addicted, had crimes that were associated with that, and then cleaned up and changed her life and devoted herself to helping other people, and certainly deserves this pardon.

Lisa Desjardins:

I want to also talk, of course, about the bigger group, the nearly 1,500 people with the sentences that were commuted here.

Now, these are folks who have been serving at home, as I said, because of COVID era law. When you look at that group, what's your understanding of why they are receiving commutations of everyone in the federal system?

Mark Osler:

I think it's because they have proven themselves, that we're looking at people that have been out for at least a year who have clean records.

It's been a remarkable experiment in what happens when we release people early, when they have been carefully vetted. With the Trump administration in place at that time, that's who did the vetting. It was under Bill Barr.

And that group as a whole on home confinement has really done remarkable things in reentering society, becoming citizens and neighbors. And because they were seen as safe, they were given a broad categorical grant.

Lisa Desjardins:

I noticed in the White House release on this that they mentioned these are folks who have also either continued education or they have already found employment in some way. So there's additional vetting, I think, for this group.

But there are some Republicans specifically who are critical about this and have been. For example, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee put out this tweet a year ago, saying that COVID was over. And she thought this policy of home confinement should have ended.

How do you respond to that criticism that this is really a haphazard circumstance related to something outside the justice system, but instead to a pandemic, and, really, this isn't a group that should be considered in this way?

Mark Osler:

Well, it's also the nature of clemency that we're supposed to seek out the people who have rehabilitated themselves, who can live safely amongst us and contribute something.

The fact that COVID accelerated that process is all to the good. There's no reason to have these people locked up. And, frankly, they're a fraction of the group in whole who shouldn't be locked up.

Lisa Desjardins:

And let's talk about that, because you and I have talked before about this, that President Biden has had up until now fewer grants of clemency than most recent presidents. He did grant a pardon to his son last week. We talked about that.

After this, after today, where do you think Biden's legacy and record stands in this area? Where are your expectations?

Mark Osler:

Yes, well, his legacy right now is that he's approached clemency in a way that's resulting grants that are wide, but shallow.

And by that, I mean, there's a lot of people, but they didn't get a huge amount of benefit. You know, these are people who are already out. And if you contrast that, for example, with what President Obama did, his was deep. He was granting commutations of sentences to people who were doing life in prison without parole.

And so, right now, his legacy is someone who is skimming the easy cases off the surface. But that can change. There's still weeks left and there's a whole bunch of people who are deserving. One thing that we have seen is that he's granting clemency to a lot of people who didn't petition for clemency, while largely ignoring the people who did.

Now, Sarah Carlson was someone who did in that handful of pardons today. But there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other people, and there's reason to think they have positive recommendations from the pardon attorney, who he could grant as well. And he should.

Lisa Desjardins:

Mark Osler with the University of St. Thomas, thank you so much for joining us.

Mark Osler:

You're welcome.