Topic summary
List of people granted executive clemency by Barack Obama
- First 100 days
- Recovery Act
- Trips
- Russia nuclear treaty
- Nobel Peace Prize
- Affordable Care Act
- Dodd–Frank
- Iraq withdrawal
- Killing of Osama bin Laden
- 2011 debt-ceiling crisis
- Libya intervention
- Afghanistan withdrawal
- Benghazi attack
- 2013 debt-ceiling crisis
- Anti-ISIL campaign
- Tan suit controversy
- Iran nuclear deal
- Cuban thaw
- Sanctions against Russia
- Selma 50th anniversary speech
- Paris Agreement
By the end of his second and final term on January 20, 2017, United States PresidentBarack Obama had exercised his constitutional power to grant the executive clemency—that is, "pardon, commutation of sentence, remission of fine or restitution, and reprieve"—to 1,927 individuals convicted of federal crimes. Of the acts of clemency, 1,715 were commutations (including 504 life sentences) and 212 were pardons. Most individuals granted executive clemency by Obama had been convicted on drug charges, and had received lengthy and sometimes mandatory sentences at the height of the war on drugs.
Obama granted 330 commutations on January 19, 2017, his last full day in office, setting a record for the largest single-day use of the clemency power that would stand until Joe Biden commuted nearly 1,500 sentences on December 12, 2024. Obama also issued more commutations than the past 13 presidents combined.