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It has been suggested by some, based on President Barack Obama’s reaction to various police-involved shootings and protest movements, that he tends to stand more with those in violation of the laws than with those who uphold and defend the laws.
When one looks at the astonishing number of federal prisoners granted a pardon or commutation for crimes they have been convicted of committing, it isn’t that difficult to figure out why some people would hold such a presumption about our nation’s current president.
According to information just released by Pew Research, Obama has granted some form of clemency to more federal convicted prisoners than the past three presidents combined. In fact, only President Lyndon Johnson offered clemency to more individuals than Obama has.
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As of the end of November, Obama had granted clemency to some 1,093 federal convicts, a number that includes 1,023 commutations of sentence and 70 full pardons. By way of comparison, President George W. Bush granted clemency to 200 individuals, Bill Clinton 459 people, and only 77 were given early release under George H.W. Bush. Johnson offered clemency to 1,187 prisoners.
Clemency is a presidential power that allows for leniency to be granted toward specific prisoners convicted of federal crimes. It is worth noting that pardons essentially completely forgive a crime, wiping clean the individual’s record and fully restoring his civil rights, while commutations merely reduce the prisoner’s sentence and allow for an early release from incarceration, without restoring rights such as gun ownership or the right to vote.
You can wade through the lengthy list of individual commutations and presidential pardons right here, courtesy of the Department of Justice.
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While some may question the high number of prisoners granted clemency during Obama’s tenure in office, Pew noted that Obama has also received the highest number of requests for clemency from federal prisoners, more than 34,930 in all, more than the past eight presidencies combined.
“Looking at the same data another way, Obama has granted clemency to only 3 percent of those who have requested it,” Pew wrote. “That’s not especially unusual among recent presidents, who have tended to use their clemency power sparingly.”
Pew noted that President Harry Truman granted clemency to 41 percent of applicants, while William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson granted clemency to 39 and 38 percent of applicants, respectively.
That said, both Pew and The Daily Caller pointed out that there has been a surge of requests for clemency during Obama’s last few years in office, specifically because of his own administration asking for such requests through a Justice Department program started in 2014, largely aimed at those convicted of non-violent federal drug crimes.
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Though Obama’s number of pardons and commutations certainly seemed record-setting, at least in modern times, it is highly unlikely that he will reach the actual record for grants of clemency set by Wilson, who commuted the sentence of some 1,366 prisoners during his time in office.
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