By the end of his
second and final term on January 20, 2017,
United States President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
had exercised his
constitutional
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these prin ...
power to grant the executive clemency—that is, "
pardon
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...
,
commutation of sentence
In law, a commutation is the substitution of a lesser penalty for that given after a conviction for a crime. The penalty can be lessened in severity, in duration, or both. Unlike most pardons by government and overturning by the court (a full ov ...
, remission of fine or restitution, and reprieve"—to 1,927 individuals convicted of
federal crimes
In the United States, a federal crime or federal offense is an act that is made illegal by U.S. federal legislation enacted by both the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives and signed into law by the president. Prosec ...
. Of the acts of clemency, 1,715 were commutations (including 504
life sentences
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes ...
) and 212 were pardons.
[Neil Eggelston]
White House (January 2017) Most individuals granted executive clemency by Obama had been convicted on drug charges,
[Allie Malloy]
CNN (December 2016). and had received lengthy and sometimes
Mandatory sentencing, mandatory sentences at the height of the
war on drugs
The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.Cockburn and St. Clair, 1 ...
.
Obama holds the record for the largest single-day use of the clemency power, granting 330 commutations on January 19, 2017, his last full day in office. He also issued more commutations than the past 13 presidents combined.
Constitutional provision
The pardon powers of the president are outlined in
Article Two of the United States Constitution
Article Two of the United States Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government, which carries out and enforces federal laws. Article Two vests the power of the executive branch in the office of the president of the Unite ...
(Section 2, Clause 1), which provides:
Definitions
A ''pardon'' is an executive order granting clemency for a conviction, it may be granted "at any point after the ... commission" of the crime. As per Justice Department regulations, convicted persons may only apply five or more years after their sentence has been completed.
However, the president's power to pardon is not restricted by any temporal constraints except that the crime must have been committed. Its practical effect is the restoration of civil rights and statutory disabilities (e.g., firearm rights, occupational licensing) associated with a past criminal conviction.
In rarer cases, such as the
pardon of Richard Nixon, a pardon can also halt criminal proceedings and prevent an indictment.
A ''commutation'' is the mitigation of the sentence of someone currently serving a sentence for a crime pursuant to a conviction, without vacating the conviction itself.
Pardons and commutations
This is a partial
, ordered by date of pardon or commutation. For an updated list, see U.S. Department of Justice.
Pardons
December 3, 2010
May 20, 2011
November 21, 2011
March 1, 2013
December 19, 2013
January 17, 2017
During his 4th to last day in office, Obama pardoned
James Cartwright, who was awaiting sentencing for giving false statements to federal investigators, and
Willie McCovey
Willie Lee McCovey (January 10, 1938 – October 31, 2018), nicknamed "Stretch", "Mac" and "Willie Mac", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1959 to 1980, most notably as a mem ...
was pardoned for tax evasion.
Commutations
November 21, 2011
December 19, 2013
July 13, 2015
On this day, Obama announced he would be commuting the sentences of 46 drug offenders.
June 3, 2016
On this day, Obama announced he would be commuting the sentences of 42 offenders.
December 20, 2016
Obama granted 78 commutations on this day.
January 17, 2017
On this day, Obama pardoned 64 individuals and commuted the sentence of 209 individuals (109 of whom faced
life sentences
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes ...
).
These included
Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning; December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage A ...
and
Oscar López Rivera
Oscar López Rivera (born January 6, 1943) is a Puerto Rican activist and militant who was a member and suspected leader of the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN), a clandestine paramilitary organization devoted to ...
, enabling them to be released from prison on May 17, 2017.
January 19, 2017
Obama commuted the prison sentences of 330 federal inmates on Thursday, January 19, 2017, his last full day in office. Obama did so, as one of his final acts in office, in order to reduce what he viewed as overly harsh punishments.
See also
*
Article Two of the United States Constitution
Article Two of the United States Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government, which carries out and enforces federal laws. Article Two vests the power of the executive branch in the office of the president of the Unite ...
*
List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States
*
List of people pardoned by George W. Bush
This is a list of people pardoned by George W. Bush. Bush, a Republican, served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.
Constitutional authority
The pardon powers of the president are outlined in Article Two of the Uni ...
*
List of people pardoned by Bill Clinton
Notes
As he finishes his second year in office, Obama pardons nine people#
References
External links
{{Federal pardons in the United States
People pardoned by Barack Obama
People pardoned by Barack Obama
Pardoned by Obama
People pardoned
+Obama, Barack
Presidential pardons