commutation

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Biden Commutes 37 of 40 Federal Death Row Sentences

President converts them to life terms

(Newser) - President Biden announced Monday that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment mere weeks before President-elect Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings,...

Biden Grants Clemency to 1.5K in a Day, Sets a Record

Former federal inmates on home confinement granted clemency, 39 others pardoned

(Newser) - President Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 former federal inmates placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic in what the New York Times notes is "the largest grant of clemency by an American president in a single day." Biden made the announcement in a...

Pressure on Biden to Commute All Federal Death Sentences

Some fear the 40 inmates on federal death row risk hanging under Trump

(Newser) - No president has ever issued a mass commutation of federal death sentences, but that's exactly what advocates are asking of President Biden in his final days in office. Several letters asking Biden to commute the sentences of all 40 people on federal death row to life in prison without...

Pamela Smart: Yes, I'm Responsible for the Murder
34 Years Later, Pamela Smart
Accepts Blame for Murder
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jun 15, 2024 12:30 PM CDT

34 Years Later, Pamela Smart Accepts Blame for Murder

She is serving a life term in husband's slaying, hopes NH governor will commute her sentence

(Newser) - For three decades while serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, Pamela Smart maintained she had nothing to do with her husband's 1990 murder. That story has finally changed. In a video released Tuesday, Smart says she's learned to take responsibility for the killing through a...

Commuting Hunter's Sentence Could Be Option for Biden

White House press secretary doesn't rule it out

(Newser) - President Biden has said he won't pardon his son Hunter, who was convicted of three gun-related felonies earlier this week. But commutation of his sentence, when it is handed down, could be a different story. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn't rule out commutation when she spoke...

Attorney for Girl Hurt in Britt Reid Crash in 'Disbelief' Over Clemency

Missouri governor commutes ex-Chiefs assistant coach's sentence, places him on house arrest

(Newser) - Britt Reid was sentenced in November 2022 to three years behind bars, but the former assistant coach for the Kansas City Chiefs just saw that sentence shortened. The Kansas City Star reports that Missouri Gov. Mike Parson commuted the 38-year-old's sentence on Friday, placing him under house arrest until...

Governor Slams 'Absurd' Reason for Rebuffing Death-Row Inmates

Louisiana's John Bel Edwards asks pardons board to commute death sentences for 56 prisoners

(Newser) - A mass petition from 56 Louisiana inmates seeking commutations from their death sentences has seemingly made its way to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who this week sent a letter to the state's Board of Pardons to ask for movement on this front. Per the Louisiana Radio Network , the...

Everyone on Oregon's Death Row Gets Sentence Commuted

Gov. Kate Brown says action was taken because death penalty is 'immoral'

(Newser) - Oregon's death row will soon be empty. Gov. Kate Brown is commuting the death sentences of all 17 people on it to sentences of life without the possibility of parole, she announced Tuesday. Declaring that the death penalty "cannot be and never has been administered fairly and equitably,...

Biden Issues His First Pardons
Biden Issues
His First Pardons
Apr 26, 2022 7:38 AM CDT

Biden Issues His First Pardons

Grants clemency to 3, commutes sentences of 75 more

(Newser) - President Biden has granted his first three pardons, reports the AP , providing clemency to a Kennedy-era Secret Service agent convicted of bribery and to two people convicted on drug-related charges who went on to become pillars in their communities. Biden also commuted the sentences of 75 others for nonviolent, drug-related...

Pamela Smart Seeks Freedom 31 Years After Husband's Death
Pamela Smart's Latest
Bid for Release Rejected
UPDATED
Mar 23, 2022 1:11 PM CDT

Pamela Smart's Latest Bid for Release Rejected

NH council voted 5-0 against granting her a commutation hearing

(Newser) - Update: New Hampshire's Executive Council has unanimously rejected Pamela Smart's request for a commutation hearing, 32 years after she recruited her 15-year-old lover to kill husband Gregg Smart, the AP reports. Smart, 54, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Associate Attorney General Jeff Strelzin...

Trump Has Busy Last Full Day in Office Planned

Sources say president will issue around 100 pardons and commutations

(Newser) - President Trump's pardoning spree will continue until pretty near the bitter end, sources say. Three people familiar with the matter tell CNN that the POTUS will issue somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 pardons and commutations on Tuesday, his last full day in office. He has until noon on...

Minnesota Decides to Free Myon Burrell
Minnesota Decides
to Free Myon Burrell
the rundown
Dec 16, 2020 9:45 AM CST

Minnesota Decides to Free Myon Burrell

The 34-year-old was sentenced to life as a juvenile

(Newser) - A Black Minnesota man sent to prison for life as a teenager took his first steps of freedom Tuesday to the sound of ringing bells and cheering family members and supporters, hours after a pardons board commuted his sentence in a high-profile murder case. Myon Burrell's prosecution and harsh...

Her Lawyers Got COVID. Now an Execution Reprieve

Federal judge orders Lisa Montgomery not be put to death before 2021

(Newser) - Lisa Montgomery is getting a bit of a break. Montgomery was set to be executed on Dec. 8 in Terre Haute, Ind., which would make her the first woman put to death by the federal government in nearly seven decades. But two of her attorneys last week requested a delay...

Roger Stone 'Will Do Anything' to Help Trump Win Reelection

He'll be campaigning for president, he tells Axios, adding he'll stay within the boundaries of the law

(Newser) - Now that Roger Stone is once more a free man, Mike Allen of Axios was able to catch up with him for a chat over the phone, and he's got the scoop on Stone's next move: campaigning for President Trump's reelection. The 67-year-old Trump ally says now...

Robert Mueller Has a Point to Make About Roger Stone

'He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so'

(Newser) - President Trump handed Roger Stone his Get Out of Jail Free card , and the man who tried to send the former fixer to jail is weighing in on the ensuing brouhaha following Stone's commutation. Writing in the Washington Post , former special counsel Robert Mueller opines that "Stone was...

Roger Stone Commutation Is Called 'Unforgivable'
Roger Stone
Commutation
Ups Outrage
to Fever Pitch
opinions
Jul 11, 2020 11:30 AM CDT

Roger Stone Commutation Ups Outrage to Fever Pitch

Mitt Romney calls it 'historic corruption'

(Newser) - If media pundits could use exclamation points, they surely would. A day after President Trump's commutation of Roger Stone's sentence, words like "outrage" and "unforgivable" are blazing across the media landscape in op-eds, tweets, and TV interviews. To recap, the president commuted the sentence of his...

22nd State Abolishes Death Penalty
22nd State
Abolishes
Death Penalty
Mar 24, 2020 9:00 AM CDT

22nd State Abolishes Death Penalty

Colorado governor also commutes sentences of 3 men on death row

(Newser) - Colorado has become the 22nd state to abolish the death penalty, which it hasn't used since 1997. Forty-four years after capital punishment was reinstated in the Centennial State, Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill Monday banning its use—"consistent with the recognition that the death penalty cannot be,...

Blagojevich Has a Lot to Say About Trump

Former Illinois governor gushes about the president, calls himself a 'Trumpocrat'

(Newser) - Rod Blagojevich promised he'd have more to say about the president Wednesday, and true to his word, the former Illinois Democratic governor gushed about Donald Trump after the Republican president commuted his sentence for political corruption, speaking Wednesday at a press event outside his Chicago home that sounded like...

The Public Is Behind Trump on Blagojevich
The Public Is
Behind Trump
on Blagojevich
OPINION
Feb 19, 2020 10:45 AM CST

The Public Is Behind Trump on Blagojevich

Lots of people thought 14 years was excessive, writes Natasha Korecki

(Newser) - The backlash was swift Tuesday as President Trump commuted Rod Blagojevich's 14-year prison sentence for political corruption. But Politico reporter Natasha Korecki argues the move "isn't crazy." In a Tuesday op-ed, Korecki—who wrote about Blagojevich's case for the Chicago Sun-Times and in a subsequent...

Report: FBI Asking Questions About Ex-Governor's Pardons

Sources: FBI agent contacted Ky. Rep. Chris Harris on Matt Bevin's controversial pardons

(Newser) - Members of the general public may not be the only ones wondering about the pardons Matt Bevin issued during his final days as Kentucky's governor. The more than 600 pardons and commutations—including for a convicted child rapist and for a man whose brother and sister-in-law held a fundraiser...

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