Obama commutes more sentences in one year than in any other single year in U.S. history
Lead Summary
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From www.whitehouse.gov
Since taking office, President Obama has fought for a smarter and more equitable criminal justice system. He has been committed to using all the tools at his disposal to remedy the unfairness at the heart of the system – including the presidential power to grant clemency.
The president has now commuted the sentences of 1,023 men and women incarcerated, including 342 individuals who were serving life sentences.
The majority were offenders sentenced for nonviolent drug crimes. To date, the president has granted commutations to more prisoners than the past 11 presidents combined. He has also granted 70 pardons and is committed to continuing to exercise the clemency power with additional grants of commutations and pardons throughout the remainder of his presidency.
At the same time, Obama knows that clemency alone cannot fix decades of overly punitive sentencing policies, or make our criminal justice system more fair and more just on the whole. That's why his administration has worked to enhance fairness and efficiency at all phases of the criminal justice system.
For more information, go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/clemency.
Since taking office, President Obama has fought for a smarter and more equitable criminal justice system. He has been committed to using all the tools at his disposal to remedy the unfairness at the heart of the system – including the presidential power to grant clemency.
The president has now commuted the sentences of 1,023 men and women incarcerated, including 342 individuals who were serving life sentences.
The majority were offenders sentenced for nonviolent drug crimes. To date, the president has granted commutations to more prisoners than the past 11 presidents combined. He has also granted 70 pardons and is committed to continuing to exercise the clemency power with additional grants of commutations and pardons throughout the remainder of his presidency.
At the same time, Obama knows that clemency alone cannot fix decades of overly punitive sentencing policies, or make our criminal justice system more fair and more just on the whole. That's why his administration has worked to enhance fairness and efficiency at all phases of the criminal justice system.
For more information, go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/clemency.