On Tuesday, the White House announced 209 people, including Chelsea Manning and Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera, will have their sentences commuted, bringing President Obama's total number of commutations during his presidency to 1,385—more than the total number of commutations issued by the past 12 presidents combined, the White House reports.
Obama also issued 64 pardons, including one for retired Gen. James Cartwright, who was charged with making false statements to the FBI during an investigation into a leak of classified information.
"These 273 individuals learned that our nation is a forgiving nation," wrote White House counsel Neil Eggleston, "where hard work and a commitment to rehabilitation can lead to a second chance, and where wrongs from the past will not deprive an individual of the opportunity to move forward."
Samuel Morison is an attorney who specializes in federal executive clemency and previously worked in the Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney, which is responsible for making commutation and pardon recommendations to the president. He says historically, it's unusual for a president to exercise his clemency power so much during his last days in office. "Presidents have traditionally started granting commutations and pardons relatively early in their presidency, and they did it on a fairly regular basis throughout the course of their [time in office]," he tells Broadly. "So there wasn't any pressure to do a huge number at the end because they already had a record of doing it all along. That's a much more rational way to do this."
Read more on Broadly
Advertisement