clemency

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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...

'If Ever There Was a Case for Clemency, This Is It'

Hugh Hurwitz calls for pardons for those on home confinement under CARES Act

(Newser) - As President Biden considers pardons for more perceived targets of President-elect Trump, he should not forget the 1,500 vulnerable former federal inmates on home confinement, who risk returning to prison under Trump. That's according to Hugh Hurwitz, former assistant director at the Bureau of Prisons, who was involved...

Biden Pardons Veterans Convicted 'for Being Themselves'

Thousands were found to have violated repealed military ban on consensual gay sex

(Newser) - President Biden pardoned potentially thousands of former US service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, saying Wednesday that he is "righting [a] historic wrong" to clear the way for them to regain lost benefits. Biden's action grants a pardon to service members...

Maryland's Governor Is About to Issue a Mass Pot Pardon

About 100K people will receive clemency for misdemeanor pot possession

(Newser) - Good news for many who've been busted with pot in the state of Maryland: Gov. Wes Moore is set to put out a mass pardon on Monday for more than 175,000 marijuana convictions, forgiving low-level possession charges for about 100,000 people. The Washington Post notes the move...

Missouri Governor Denies Clemency for Brian Dorsey

Prison guards, jurors, and a judge had called for inmate's life to be spared

(Newser) - Despite the chorus of calls to grant clemency to Brian Dorsey, Missouri's Republican Gov. Mike Parson decided not to prevent the execution scheduled for Tuesday. "Governor Parson has chosen to ignore the wealth of information before him showing that Brian Dorsey is uniquely deserving of mercy," Dorsey'...

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...

Biden Slams 'Failed Approach' to Pot, Clears Path for Pardons

President makes thousands more people eligible to receive pardons for marijuana-related crimes

(Newser) - President Biden is making thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia eligible for pardons, the White House said Friday, in his latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system....

Army Aims to Rectify 'Largest Mass Execution' in Its History

More than a century later, soldier convictions related to the 1917 Houston riots are overturned

(Newser) - It was, as the Washington Post reports, "the largest mass execution carried out in the history of the US Army." On Dec. 11, 1917, 13 Buffalo Soldiers were hanged in a military camp near Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. The African American cavalry soldiers of the...

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...

No Clemency for Glossip From Oklahoma Parole Board

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond had asked board to spare him

(Newser) - In what CNN calls an "unprecedented step," Oklahoma's attorney general on Wednesday appeared before the state's parole board to lobby for clemency for Richard Glossip. The board wasn't swayed. It voted 2-2 to not recommend that Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt grant Glossip clemency, meaning the...

George Floyd Pardon Dropped
George Floyd Pardon Dropped
Dec 23, 2021 6:55 PM CST

George Floyd Pardon Dropped

Abbott's office says there were errors in recommendation by Texas parole board

(Newser) - The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously recommended that George Floyd, who was convicted on a drug charge in 2004 and killed by a police officer in 2020, be given a full pardon. But Thursday, when it came time for Gov. Greg Abbott to release his annual list of...

Lawyers: Trump Phone Call Amounts to a Real Pardon

Jailed hip-hop manager was promised release by last Christmas

(Newser) - The fact that the previous president didn't approach the office in a traditional way is not news. The family of a jailed hip-hop manager is now banking that despite an unorthodox manner, clemency they say was granted by Donald Trump will be honored by a federal prison in West...

Missouri Governor: Pardoning Inmate of 40 Years Not Priority

Gov. Mike Parson working through a backlog of 3K clemency requests

(Newser) - Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says addressing the clemency petition for a man who’s been behind bars for a triple murder for more than four decades is not a "priority," even though prosecutors say he didn't commit the crime. Parson noted that Kevin Strickland, 62, was...

Still Jailed Over Media Leak, Reality Winner Turns to Biden
Reality Winner Wants Biden
Answer on 'Glaring Discrepancy'
in case you missed it
May 1, 2021 12:08 PM CDT

Reality Winner Wants Biden Answer on 'Glaring Discrepancy'

Jailed for leaking intel report, she wants to know why she's behind bars for longer than Russian spy

(Newser) - Reality Winner, who's been behind bars for nearly four years , is set to be released from prison at the end of November, with a chance she could be sent to a halfway house before that. But the 29-year-old Air Force veteran—who leaked a classified National Security Agency report...

Brothers Who Thought They'd Never Leave Prison Are Freed

They were sentenced to life without parole after victim died of a heart attack

(Newser) - In 1980, Pennsylvania brothers Reid and Wyatt Evans went along with their friend when he suggested Reid's inoperable antique shotgun could be used for a robbery. They stole 68-year-old Leonard Leichter's Cadillac and dropped him off at a phone booth. But when he died from a heart attack...

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...

Dustin Higgs Asks Trump Not to Put Him to Death

His lawyers call the sentencing 'arbitrary and inequitable'

(Newser) - A federal death row inmate who is due to die on Jan. 15 has petitioned President Trump for clemency. The Guardian explains the case Dustin Higgs is trying to make: Essentially that it was "arbitrary and inequitable" to sentence the man who murdered three woman who had been abducted...

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...

Lawyers for Death Row Inmate: We Got COVID Due to Bill Barr

Lisa Montgomery's attorneys: Surprise execution date set during pandemic forced us to travel

(Newser) - Two attorneys for a female death-row inmate are blasting Attorney General Bill Barr, saying they contracted COVID-19 because he "recklessly" put their client's execution on the calendar for next month, all while the pandemic is still raging. In a lawsuit filed on behalf of Lisa Montgomery against the...

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