President Joe Biden he plans to issue his first batch of presidential pardons Tuesday as he commutes the prison sentences of 75 nonviolent drug offenders.
The pardon recipients are “three individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation and strive every day to give back and contribute to their communities,” Biden said in a statement.
Among them is Abraham Bolden86, a Chicago man who became the first African-American Secret Service agent to serve on a presidential detail during the Kennedy administration.
In 1964, Bolden was arrested on charges related to trying to sell a copy of a Secret Service file, a charge he has consistently denied. He was convicted after two trials, despite key witnesses later admitting to lying at the request of prosecutors, the White House said in a fact sheet.
Bolden was sentenced to six years in federal prison and “has been recognized for his many contributions to his community since his release,” the White House said. He also “received numerous honors and awards for his continued work to speak out against the racism he faced in the Secret Service in the 1960s and his courage to challenge injustice.”
A senior administration official said Tuesday’s action means Biden will have granted more people clemency at this point in his presidency than the last five presidents. Former President Donald Trump issued 143 pardons in his four years in office —116 of them in January 2021— and 94 commutations. Former President Barack Obama issued 212 pardons and commuted 1,715 sentences in two terms.
Another pardon recipient is Betty Jo Bogans, 51, a single mother from Houston. She was convicted in 1998 of possession with intent to distribute crack after attempting to transport drugs for her boyfriend and her accomplice, neither of whom were detained or arrested, the White House said.
Bogans, who had no criminal record, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
“In the nearly two decades since her release, Ms. Bogans has had steady employment, including while undergoing cancer treatment, and has focused on raising her son,” the White House said.
The third pardon recipient is Dexter Jackson, 52, a Georgia man who pleaded guilty to allowing marijuana dealers to use his pool hall “to facilitate drug transactions,” the White House said.
After his release from prison, Jackson turned his pool hall into a cell phone repair business, hiring local high school students through a program to provide work experience for young adults, the White House said. She also helped build and renovate homes in the community, the White House said.
Biden said the 75 people whose sentences are being commuted “are serving long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.” He said many of them have been placed on home confinement due to the pandemic and “would have received a lower sentence if they had been charged with the same crime today, thanks to the bipartisan Law of the first step”, the criminal justice reform measure that Trump signed into law.
Biden also announced Tuesday new job training measures and grants to help people re-enter society after prison terms.
“[H]Helping those who have served their time to return to their families and become contributing members of their communities is one of the most effective ways to reduce recidivism and decrease crime,” he said in a statement.
Reference-news.yahoo.com