On December 12, Biden commuted the sentences of 1,499 people who “have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the COVID-era CARES Act. These Americans have been reunited with their families and shown their commitment to rehabilitation by securing employment and advancing their education.”
The Biden administration claimed this was the most people ever granted clemency on a single day, but previous categorical grants of clemency by Biden and former president Jimmy Carter affected more people. It’s the third time Biden has commuted the sentences of people who were moved to home confinement amid the pandemic.
As the New York Times notes, some GOP lawmakers in Congress have pushed for legislation to send people who were released to home confinement during the COVID pandemic back to prison.
The mass-commutation continues to spark backlash, however, including from fellow Democrats, as it appears as though the White House didn’t really vet everyone on the list.
1) The ACLU and other progressive orgs called on Biden to grant clemency to all incarcerated people who’d been granted home confinement under the CARES Act. Biden did as they asked.
2) Biden probably shouldn’t have listened to them, and vetted the list of beneficiaries instead. https://t.co/smupwmvCzZ pic.twitter.com/GBh6OlTG5z
— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) December 14, 2024
Here are some of the inclusions that have drawn scrutiny:
Former Pennsylvania judge Michael Conahan
In 2011, Conahan and another judge were convicted for wrongly sending juveniles to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks. (Four thousand juvenile convictions were later thrown out after the “Kids for Cash” scheme was exposed.) Conahan’s 17-year prison sentence was due to end in 2026, and he had been serving that sentence under home confinement since 2020. Sandy Fonzo, whose son died by suicide after being sent to a juvenile detention center, called Biden’s commutation “deeply painful” in a statement. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro publicly criticized Biden, as well. “I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “[Conahan] deserves to be behind bars, not walking as a free man.”
Paul Daugerdas, a notorious tax cheat
As NBC News reports:
A former law partner from Illinois, Paul Daugerdas, was convicted of overseeing fraudulent tax shelters — at a cost to the government of more than $1.63 billion. The scheme generated over $7 billion of fraudulent deductions, according to prosecutors. His law firm agreed to pay a $76 million penalty. Prosecutors called Daugerdas “the most prolific, pernicious and utterly unrepentant tax cheat in United States history,” while a judge described the case as “the biggest tax fraud prosecution ever,” according to Forbes. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2014; Biden commuted his sentence.
Jim Carlson, who ran a synthetic-drug ring in Minnesota
Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar said Sunday that she was sure some of the commutations were deserved, but “there were a number that I think make no sense at all” after referencing Carlson’s case. Here’s the Star-Tribune’s summary of his crimes:
Jim Carlson, a head shop owner found guilty in 2013 on dozens of felony charges after experts said he sold enough synthetic drugs to cause a public health crisis in Duluth, had his sentence commuted Thursday as one of nearly 1,500 convicted criminals granted clemency by President Joe Biden. Carlson received a 17½-year sentence after a jury found him guilty on 51 of 55 felony counts for selling synthetic drugs from his store in downtown Duluth. … Prosecutors alleged Carlson sold synthetic drugs that were misbranded as incense, potpourri, bath salts and glass cleaner, while using employees as guinea pigs to test how the unregulated drugs worked on customers.
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Publish date : 2024-12-23 01:41:00
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