President Joe Biden is the latest chief executive to save most of his acts of clemency until near the end of his time in the White House.
Biden announced Dec. 12 that he would grant pardons to 39 people and commute the sentences of 1,499 others. Taken together, the actions represent “the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history,” according to the White House.
Before the announcement, Biden had granted clemency to only 161 people – including a controversial recent pardon of his son Hunter, who had been convicted of federal tax and gun crimes. In other words, Biden granted clemency to nearly 10 times as many people on Dec. 12 as he had in the nearly four years prior.
This Pew Research Center analysis examines late-term acts of clemency by recent U.S. presidents. Information about the 1,538 people who received clemency on Dec. 12 comes from the White House. Information about earlier acts of clemency by President Joe Biden, as well as his recent predecessors, comes from the Department of Justice. The Justice Department’s statistics do not count clemency granted to entire classes of offenders by proclamation, such as the actions taken by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford to forgive thousands of Vietnam War-era draft dodgers.
The clemency power is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and can refer to multiple forms of presidential mercy:
- Pardons forgive past crimes and restore civil rights.
- Commutations completely or partially reduce sentences for people in prison or on community supervision.
- Remissions reduce financial penalties associated with convictions.
- Respites are temporary reprieves usually granted to inmates for medical reasons.
All told, more than 90% of Biden’s total acts of clemency have now come in his last fiscal year in office – the period between Oct. 1 and Jan. 20, when he will leave the White House. That figure could increase, too: Biden said in a statement accompanying his burst of pardons and commutations that he “will take more steps in the weeks ahead.”
Both of Biden’s predecessors as president, Donald Trump and Barack Obama, also saved most of their acts of clemency for their final fiscal year in office, according to the Department of Justice. More than eight-in-ten of Trump’s 238 acts of clemency (84%) came after Oct. 1, as did 61% of Obama’s 1,927 such acts. President Bill Clinton also issued a majority of his 459 acts of clemency (56%) after Oct. 1.
In fact, every president since Gerald Ford has issued pardons or commutations in his very last days in office, according to the Justice Department. Trump, for example, granted 116 acts of clemency on his second-to-last day (Jan. 19, 2021). Obama granted 330 on his own second-to-last day (Jan. 19, 2017). And Clinton granted 177 in the last hours of his presidency on Jan. 20, 2001.
It remains to be seen how Biden will compare with other presidents in his overall use of clemency when his term is over. But with his pardons and commutations on Dec. 12, he has now issued more acts of clemency than any recent president except Obama – and more than the last five Republican presidents combined.
