WORLD NEWS: BIDEN GRANTS CLEMENCY TO 2,500 PEOPLE IN ONE DAY

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In what the White House referred to as the largest single-day act of clemency in US history, President Joe Biden shortened the sentences of almost 2,500 individuals convicted of non-violent drug offences on Friday.

Biden stated in a statement that those whose sentences were commuted were serving “disproportionately long sentences” in comparison to what they would get today.

According to him, the action is “an important step towards correcting sentencing disparities, righting historic wrongs, and providing deserving individuals with the opportunity to return to their families.”

Biden stated that he may give additional pardons or commutations before turning over authority to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday. “With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in US history,” he added.

Last month, Biden pardoned 39 individuals and commuted the sentences of almost 1,500 others.

Hunter, Biden’s son, who was facing a potential jail sentence after being found guilty of tax and gun-related offences, was one of those pardoned in December.

According to reports, Biden has been considering whether to grant general pardons to certain former officials and associates out of concern that they would be singled out for what Trump has previously referred to as “retribution.”

Biden also commuted 37 of the 40 federal death row convicts’ execution sentences in December.

Three guys were left out of the move: a white supremacist who killed nine Black churchgoers in 2015, a gunman who slaughtered eleven Jewish worshippers in 2018, and one of the Boston Marathon bombers in 2013.

Trump has indicated that he will resume federal executions, which were paused while Biden was in office.

AFP