Biden commutes drug sentences for 11 people and expands marijuana pardons

President Biden said he would commute the sentences of 11 people jailed for nonviolent drug offenses and pardon convictions for marijuana use and possession on federal lands as part of a broader effort by his administration to address racial disparities in drug sentencing to grab.

Each of the clemency recipients would be eligible for a shorter sentence under current laws, Biden said in a statement Friday. Their original sentences – characterized by the president as “disproportionately long” – ranged from decades to life in prison for attempting to distribute drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine. according to on a list published by the White House.

Mr. Biden also said he had pardoned more marijuana possession crimes under federal law and D.C. law, building on his decision last year to pardon thousands of people charged under federal law were convicted of marijuana possession. The new pardons would apply to people found guilty of using or attempting to possess marijuana on federal lands, in addition to simple possession, a presidential commission said. proclamation released on Friday.

Such crimes have outnumbered those at the state level, for which Mr. Biden does not have the authority to pardon.

“Too many lives have been turned upside down because of our failed approach to marijuana,” Biden said. “It is time for us to right these wrongs.”

The president also urged governors to review state crimes to further expand the number of people who could qualify for similar pardons.

Mr. Biden’s actions are intended to address the disparities between the penalties faced by white Americans and those meted out to Black and Latino Americans, and to appeal to the majority of Americans. who believe that marijuana should be legalized. As the election year approaches, Mr. Biden and his advisers are also trying to draw a sharper contrast with former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican front-runner.

As he also campaigns for a second term, Trump’s rhetoric on crime has grown more violent. He has said he admires the freedom despots have to execute drug dealers. In a sign of the potential of criminal justice reform as an election issue, however, Mr. Trump is also wrestling with advisers over how much to emphasize his work to pass the First Step Act, a bipartisan drug sentencing reform bill that 2018 was signed.

As a 2020 candidate, Mr. Biden was attacked by critics for his past involvement in crafting legislation that criminal justice experts say led to mass incarceration that devastated America’s Black communities. As president, he has taken steps to close the racial divide created by those policies, though he has not made as much progress as many activists had hoped.

“While executive clemency is one tool to right past injustices, much more needs to be done,” Cynthia W. Roseberry, acting director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Justice Department, said in a statement , noting that the leniency does not extend to non-citizens.

Mr. Biden’s sentence reductions build on federal guidance issued last year by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, which directed prosecutors to file the same charges and seek equivalent sentences for powder as for crack cocaine offenses.

This was evident from a 2022 report by the US Sentencing Commission 78 percent of the people convicted of crack trafficking were black. For comparison, 25 percent of those convicted of trafficking in powder cocaine were black, according to the commission.

Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, called the guidelines “a positive step forward in addressing longstanding racial disparities in crack and powder cocaine sentencing,” adding in a statement that ” our hope is that clemency will occur.” awarded to more black Americans who have been criminalized by the decades-old policies of the war on drugs era.”

Criminal justice and sentencing activists said Mr. Biden’s efforts to expand marijuana pardons signaled a recognition that the president could do more to reform what they say are outdated laws around possession, attempt to correct possession and use of marijuana.

“It is a significant broadening of the category of people who are helped by the president’s clemency powers,” said Udi Ofer, a professor at the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs. “This is consistent with the president’s historic use of categorical clemency powers to right systemic injustices.”

Yet people convicted of marijuana possession or use on federal lands vastly outnumber those arrested and convicted for these offenses at the state level. According to the US Sentencing Commission, only 92 people were convicted of federal marijuana possession in 2017, out of nearly 20,000 drug convictions.

According to a January 2023 report, approximately 44 states and territories have introduced medical marijuana decriminalization or legalization provisions. report by the criminal committee. As of the end of 2021, 19 states and territories had provisions allowing prior marijuana convictions to be expunged or sealed.

Other additional recommendations from Mr. Biden in his initial announcement last year are still under review, including an assessment of whether marijuana should still be in the same legal category as drugs like heroin and LSD.

In August, the Health and Human Services Department recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration move marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance, a category for medicines that have less chance of abuse or dependence. Drug Enforcement Administration officials did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on the status of that investigation.