Washington — President Biden issued a handful of pardons in his final full day in office, granting clemency to individuals who he said have “made significant contributions to improving their communities” as the sun sets on his presidency.
“America is a country built on the promise of second chances,” Mr. Biden said in a statement, noting that he has used his clemency power to “make that promise a reality” with more individual pardons and commutations than any other President in history — a record he set after commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people on Friday.
The president granted clemency Sunday to five people, most of whom were convicted of non-violent drug offenses, and commuted the sentence of two individuals who he said have demonstrated “remorse, rehabilitation, and redemption” in decades of incarceration.
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Among those being pardoned was Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who was granted clemency posthumously. Garvey was a Black nationalist who was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s, and his sentence was commuted in 1927 by President Calvin Coolidge. Mr. Biden also pardoned Ravi Ragbir, an advocate for immigrant rights, and Kemba Smith Pradia, an advocate for criminal justice reform. And the president granted clemency to Don Scott, who became the first Black Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates last year.
In an interview with CBS News, Scott said he had received a call from the White House shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday morning confirming the pardon.
Through tears, Scott, who served seven years in prison on drug charges, said he is “so very grateful because I take nothing for granted.”
“I think there are a lot of people like me who deserve second chances and there are people in power who won’t do it, who won’t use the power that they have,” Scott added. “I’m grateful that President Biden used his.”
Mr. Biden’s pardons in recent days come after the president made the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history in December by commuting the sentences of around 1,500 people and pardoning nearly 40 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. Earlier that month, he also issued a pardon for his son, Hunter Biden.
The moves come as questions have circulated about whether Mr. Biden will issue preemptive pardons for officials who have been targets of President-elect Donald Trump and could be prosecuted in the new administration. Trump is set to be sworn in at noon on Monday.
